


Bad Blood Bone Bros

by skerb



Series: Postcards From Waterfall [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Arguing, Family Drama, M/M, Miscommunication, Panic Attacks, Papyrus (Undertale) Knows More Than He Lets On, Reconciliation, Secrets, sansby - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28533384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skerb/pseuds/skerb
Summary: Papyrus, lonely and worrying after the disappearance of his friend, calls Sans from the CORE. Sans journeys through Waterfall solo, reminiscing on his and Grillby’s time through it. Some flowers make him uneasy.(CH 46-54 - BAD BLOOD BONE BROS)
Relationships: Grillby/Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Series: Postcards From Waterfall [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089182
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **content warning(s):** panic attack

“heya. you’ve reached a skeleman’s voicemail. if you need to ring, you know to do the thing.”

“ARGH!!! SANS, YOU AND I BOTH VERY WELL KNOW THAT IS NOT YOUR USUAL VOICEMAIL MESSAGE AND YOU’RE TOO LAZY TO CHANGE IT!”

Sans slid down the expanse of the couch, barely containing his snicker.

“beep.”

“AND DON’T JUST SAY ‘BEEP’ LIKE YOU’RE ACTUALLY AN AUTOMATON RECORDING! THAT’S JUST SILLY - AND CRUEL TO ALL FABULOUS ROBOTS EVERYWHERE!”

Sans’ chuckles breached on the threat of being heard and he covered the mouthpiece of his phone as he hiked his legs over the back of the couch. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he found he couldn’t nap as much as he used to now that his energy levels were bolstered. Any kind of movement helped relieve him of excess energy, so flipping around on the couch it was. He was in a particular mood - free, easy, not burdened by anxiety… it was a nice change of pace.

Happy, even.

“we’re sorry. please try again-”

“SANS, YOU’RE NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO CHANGE YOUR VOICE PITCH? HOW DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD PRANK??”

“aww. i knew you’d be too cool to fall for that one.”

“YES, SEVENTEEN TIMES IN THE PAST WEEK HARDLY HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT. IT WAS ALL MY GRAND COOLNESS, MY GREAT APTITUDE THAT ALLOWED YOU TO JAPE ME ALL THESE TIMES!”

“it was a prank, but whatever. sup, bro?” Sans chuckled to himself as he eased into the crease of the couch cushions and tilted his skull back to view the television - albeit at an upside down angle. “how’s hotland?”

“YOU KNOW VERY WELL HOW I TAKE TO WARMER CLIMATES!! ALSO I TOLD YOU, I’M AT THE CORE!!”

“never heard of it.”

Papyrus sounded like he was trying very hard not to break his own phone in half and held back a yell of frustration with very little success. “WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!?”

Sans idly picked at his nasal cavity, his grin broadening, “like what? what’s gotten under your skin lately?”

“WE. DON’T. HAVE. SKIN.”

“pity.”

“I KNOW!! AND NOTHING HAS, NOR EVER WILL BE THERE!”

“ok. i know you’re tryin’ to get to the _leather_ of me here, but i’m kinda busy.”

“LEATHER?” Papyrus echoed, then his voice went shrill, “LEATHER!?”

Sans’ chuckles became wheezy and he covered his teeth, unable to hold back a full-out guffaw.

“WAIT! HOW ARE YOU BUSY? YOU HAVE TIME OFF! ARE YOU FINALLY FIXING YOUR BEDROOM? CLEANING UP YOUR LAB? SHOVELLING THE PATH TO THE PORCH? RECALIBRATING YOUR PUZZLES??”

“all very valid points there, pap. but naw, i’ve been-” Sans stopped and realised what his brother had done a little late. “wow. sneaky.”

“YOU'VE BEEN SNEAKY? HOW IS THIS NEW?”

“you totally dodged my question,” the older brother grumbled in feigned agitation, “how’re you?”

“OH.” A pause. “GREAT..? I SUPPOSE? IT’S HOT.”

“yeah, i got that. what else.”

“I AM..?” Sans waited; he could always wait. “PROMISE YOU WON’T BE MAD?”

“papyrus…” Sans muttered a little quietly in warning, “what’s up.”

“I JUST… HAVEN’T HEARD FROM MY FRIEND, ALRIGHT? I’M STARTING TO WORRY!”

“i got that-” He stopped. What friend?

“They usually pop up and surprise me sometimes. I suppose I’m… just feeling a little… lonely? Perhaps?”

Sans smiled a little sadly, a needling feeling starting to dig at him, “what, a cool guy like you?”

“I KNOW! I’M JUST AS PERPLEXED!” Papyrus didn’t sound entirely convinced, so Sans just sighed. “I KNOW I GET TO GO SOON, BUT…”

“i gotcha, pap. i’ll stop by for a noogie. we can come back together. i miss ya.”

“WELL. THAT… IS UNEXPECTED. I MEAN, HOW ARE YOU FEELING? SURELY-”

“bro, relax. i’m at a hundo-percent,” Sans interjected a little painfully at his brother’s concern. “wouldn’t offer if i knew i couldn’t.”

“WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH SANS!!”

“har har. i’ll see you soon, bro. love ya.”

After the call ended, Sans wondered how to get to Hotland without having to use the ferry, nor trudge through Waterfall. Admittedly, he’d been avoiding the area altogether, and he no longer trusted the ferry thanks to the mishap on his and Grillby’s first date. He didn’t feel a shortcut would be a good idea, either, considering how it backfired the last time.

He had the energy to spare. He’d go through the marsh. It would give him time to think about this absent friend of Papyrus’. Besides, he had to give Alphys back her broken invention.

After Sans had gotten changed and pulled on his shoes, he made sure to take a few snacks with him and knot his laces extra tight. Going through alone would be a little quiet, but he wanted to make sure, in case if anything happened to him, that he would be intact.

That was a peculiar thought.

Huffing out a breath at the cavern leading into Waterfall, he made a quick pass over his pockets. Snacks, check. Phone, check. Money, yep. Broken regulator, got it. He exhaled.

Hopefully whatever that hallway was, he wouldn’t be drawn to it again.

The first hour through was silent, but there were more monsters around than on his way through with Grillby. Sans’ pace was leisurely yet cautious, his eye lights trained on the path ahead. Several vines choked the bridgeways and gaps between the glittering caverns and marshy pathways, barely in view for the muted light the area cast around him.

It was no wonder he had tripped. The skeleton reached the bridge where he’d made his embarrassing stumble and looked over the planks of slippery wood, everything gleaming with unnatural blackness. It barely stood out now without the fire monster’s ambient glow and Sans could feel a pinch in his rib cage at the absence.

He understood how difficult it was for Grillby now. With his health dipping, he knew the fiery pulses that made him suspicious were with good reason. Waterfall took a lot out of the bartender, it was a wonder how the fire monster didn’t just delay further and wait for the ferry. Sans was pretty sure the townsfolk wouldn’t have minded waiting if they knew how dangerous the journey had been.

Sans continued on his way, solitude and an ethereal coil of unease settling over him. Many times he looked up to the hidden expanse above as though expecting for something to be crawling up ahead. He heard nothing though, so he continued on his way, placidly solving his brother’s puzzles as he went. It was more than likely that Papyrus had recalibrated them on his way through, if he didn’t take the ferry.

So who was this friend he was worrying about? Why was this the first time Sans was hearing about it? - No, that wasn’t quite right. Sans recalled an instance or two where Papyrus would refer to a friend for advice and guidance. Was this the same friend that taught Papyrus about skeletons?

Sans found himself going over that a few times; that was peculiar. Maybe he would ask about them.

He made faster progress than the trip through with Grillby - even at his slow pace, he was starting to rush a little. Waterfall had absorbed the feeling of dread and malaise the closer he got to the glowing reeds area. He could feel it twisting around his soul and tugging him closer, a peculiar sensation that bit at every fibre in his bones.

Sans resisted the urge to shudder through the dense thicket of tall grasses leading from the bridge to the main path, remembering the way the vegetation wilted when Grillby pushed through it. He grinned a little awkwardly at the whole embarrassing scenario; losing his leg was a pain to get back, but it led to him trusting Grillby a little more than he usually would have.

That was the first time he recognised ‘heat,’ he suddenly realised. Grinning a little more foolishly, Sans buried his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders against the humidity of the marsh with the thought. He couldn’t believe it took him so long to come to terms with his feelings; no wonder Papyrus had been so frustratingly adamant.

The walk past the point where a new shop had set up was a little more relaxing as Sans lingered on those thoughts. Of nostalgia, even if it had been only a little under two months since their trip through together. His easy stroll returned as a few monsters came out to greet him from the shadows and make small talk along the way before wishing him safe travels.

Then he was alone again. Occasionally Sans would look at his phone. A little over an hour had passed since he started his walk through the familiar marshland. It glowed as it always did, the dripping of water and the ponds sloshing against the pathways and bridges a constant reminder to its namesake.

It felt peaceful as it did all that time ago. He silently reprimanded himself for being so paranoid. Perhaps the grey door had been a fluke, a rift in the gridline that he had failed to connect to before. It had been his mental state, after all. With Grillby…

He flushed at the memory. That teasing bastard, Sans thought with a grin. He wasn’t blaming the fire monster for his own mistakes. Alphys warned him of how forward fire monsters tended to be - that is, much later.

Thoughts such as these were fleeting and he basked in them, a lightness to his soul as he followed the glowing marshes and familiar bright toadstools, echoing his magic’s flux. Everything was calm. Everything was peaceful. He had nothing to worry about.

Everything was fine - up until he reached the point where he and Papyrus had stopped to confess to echo flowers. Flushing at the thought and how silly it had all been, Sans stopped to listen.

_‘Ans(ages?)er, and (much apprecia(ten thousand gold!!)ted, thank yo(you’re so much)u), ate three wh(swear upon the Delta Rune!)ole steaks, it wa(looking forward to it)s a great end(echo flowers(owers), so wide(and up), called (the ceiling), stars live(more than life?) each others (ers) (says)ssssss-’_

The corridor’s voices were clearer than usual, pieces of long-forgotten conversations echoing highly in the singsong whisper, back and forth. The passing conversation must’ve been fairly recent if it was this decipherable and nothing stood out as suspicious, so the skeleton continued on.

_‘With(action, despite reference)er, aside fro(other than carelessness, skeletal (for which I deeply apologise) structure reinhibit)m the particulates and ignitio(or, to preclude)n of the first py(grass is so unnatural? Why is it her(e on a magical level, the sun’s rays)e)lon in seismic activity, prolonged exposure to the magifield (something about existential crisis (we all know how that is, hahaha!) you’re late) as one precludes staminal usage apart from flux deposit, incite excess(though for some reasons(quarter of a hand of salt, and then what (at?))’_

The reference to skeletons caught his attention and immediately Sans came to a halt. He froze as the coil of dread returned and he stared, sockets blown wide at the tall flowers shifting against the currents. The whispers back and forth made the sentences melt together like mud, only growing more and more incoherent the longer he stayed and listened.

Several of those strings sounded familiar, tugging at darker thoughts. He balled his hands in his pockets and stared between the flowers, his feet rooted to the spot as an old fear started to well up in him again.

_‘Aging (though perfectly honest, what else(amazing, just absolutely) could there be accounted for) through the times, as long as it stilts in pla(exactly as planned, drawing upon reserves won’t be(although it could cause) a simple task (doubt he would live long anyway) such a trifling youth) all well(ells? Anchor infusion(ageless))-’_

Much how one little phrase sent him reeling when uttered by his brother, Sans shrank back away from the echo flower pool. The words stung like electricity, repeating in his skull and amplifying every fear he had with little reason. His breaths stuttered as he fumbled away to escape, his body frozen and locking up at the joints.

He was directionless as he tried to flee, trapped in his reeling thoughts that both plagued and assaulted him. Sans tried to push away the bad memory, but it hit back harder; this time with more clarity, making him tremble as he stumbled over his feet to flee.

He was stuck in place, rooted by fear, his eye lights hollow in his sockets as his breaths echoed around him, being picked up by the field of flowers to be vaulted back at him. His voice was stuck on a silent scream with no anchor to ground him other than unfathomable panic.

 _It’s not real,_ he repeated over in his mind, _it’s over. Don’t go back-_

"KISS MISS issho ni ai karade? Kon po WA daru anima shou--” The sudden jaunty tune of Alphys’ favourite cartoon was enough to shatter the altered reality that Sans’ panic had drawn him into. He reeled away from the echo flower pools as he stuffed his hand into his pocket to pull out his phone while the song continued to play jarringly against his senses.

He connected the call but found he couldn’t speak. His breaths came in shallow frightened pants with every footfall, aiming to put as much distance between himself that the terrible flowers that echoed the medical torture he endured as a child.

He didn’t want to remember. It was unimportant to, but it kept wheedling its way back to the forefront of his consciousness, tugging at old wounds and shame as though it was freshly sliced open.

 _“....ans? Is that you?”_ The voice grounded him and Sans focused on it, concentrated on the dulcet, low gravelling tone of the bartender through the echoes around him. _“Sans?”_

Having calmed down a little more, the skeleton shook his skull and sighed, the breath gusting over the mouthpiece so much that it muffled his voice. “hey..?”

 _“Are you alright?”_ It was Grillby. What a time for a phone call. It’s like the guy knew Sans needed calming down. _“You sound…”_ the bartender sounded concerned and insistent, something the skeleton appreciated at the back of his frazzled mind.

Sans inhaled, his breaths rattling alongside his bones. “i’m, uh…”

_“....Can hear you rattling.”_

“i just.. got a little startled. alphys changed my, uh… ringtone.”

_“I know that isn’t true.”_

“no, h-honest,” _damn it,_ he mentally chastised himself for stammering, “it’s the opening theme to a show she likes and it’s, uh…”

_“You’re either nervous or afraid. Where are you?”_

“…really loud,” Sans finished pointlessly, ignoring the other’s concern for the moment as he looked around, every fibre of his being raising in unease with the echoes of his haggard breathing at the edge of the flowers’ petals.

Sans took another calming breath and shook his skull, forcing himself to look ahead as he walked a little more quickly away from the corridor. “waterfall.”

A sound of disgust from the other end of the call made Sans’ grin twitch slightly. _“Dreadful.”_ There was a hint of remorse to the other’s tone alongside a sigh of resignation, as though Grillby knew Sans would dodge him despite his efforts. _“Why make the journey, when the ferry is available?”_

Sans shrugged to himself as he passed the pathway into the murk of the muddier part of the marsh, eye lights trained on the benign glow from afar of bioluminescent fungus and gnats along the more solid parts of the ground. He hummed to himself as though in consideration.

“m’kinda feelin’ frustrated, i guess,” he muttered a little truthfully, “thought the walk would clear my head, but…”

 _“Care for company..?”_ the fire monster offered.

“you got customers,” Sans replied evasively, his right hand wringing at the fabric in his pocket and around a few coins. “guess i gotta remember to come by to settle the ol’ tab, huh?”

There was a kind note to Grillby’s hum of agreement that made Sans flush, although he wasn’t sure why. The grounding of the other’s call had been a saving grace and the skeleton couldn’t help but grin to himself, the tension easing from his shoulders as he gradually stopped rattling.

“so why’d you call?”

Grillby didn’t reply right away but Sans could hear his ambient flames crackle through the receiver. _“Felt like… the right moment to do so.”_

“spooky.”

 _“I didn’t think it that…”_ the fire monster replied; Sans could just picture the accompanying rolled shrug and grinned despite himself. _“Perhaps, I… only wanted to hear your voice.”_

“aww, what a sap,” the skeleton drawled goodnaturedly as he kicked a twig away from the main path. It splashed away somewhere insignificant as his soul gave a little flutter with the other’s quiet chuckle.

“if you were lookin’ for a meaningful conversation here, grillbz, i’ll have you know you’d be barkin’ up the wrong tree.”

_“How so?”_

“dunno. you kinda got me _boughs_ to the wall,” Sans chuckled quietly as he turned away from an eddying pool and gently rapped against a mushroom to light the area.

 _“That has never been my intention. Although you should know I am here for any sorts of mental disencumbrance, should you need t-”_ Grillby stopped, then very abruptly sighed. _“Tree jokes.”_

Sans snickered to himself, appreciative for the reason; for a moment there he thought that the fire monster hadn’t caught on. “ok, you’ve _needled_ me. i guess i can go out on a _limb_ and get a few things off my _trunk-”_

_“The most invalid sentence, one has never before spoke!”_

“i thought you liked my jokes,” the skeleton teased before scanning the area for the next path. It had been so long since he’d gone through this particular area that he had forgotten most of it - that and he was still working through a bit of his panic. “uh.”

_“I will always listen if you are in need to… pine?”_

Sans’ snickers broke into genuine laughter as Grillby’s fire popped through the phone line in a start. “oh man! i needed that.”

_“Did you?”_

Sans hummed after a calming moment, his voice laced with faint chuckles as he made it through the quiet trickling waterscape. “can i tell you somethin’?”

He expected Grillby to say yes as he always did, but Sans supposed there was still something in his soul that was apprehensive about being rejected even after he’d been proven otherwise. That’s why when Grillby agreed, Sans hesitated.

“a bit back… you could say i was in rough shape,” he started a little quietly, just a breath above a whisper as he passed a few mutedly glowing crystals. “uh, mentally, i guess. it kinda felt like things that were happenin’ weren’t supposed to, so i thought something was goin’ wrong.”

The skeleton wound around a corner of the maze with something of a frustrated sigh. “the more time that passed, the more i was convinced that… me bein’ happy wasn’t supposed to happen - and i get how that makes me sound, but honestly, it felt like every moment was a joke. that somethin’ else entirely was… i dunno. i even had a list, of sorts.”

 _“I do recall,”_ the fire monster replied sombrely after a moment’s pause, _“You’re… better now. Though I don’t know exactly how you mean things that may or may not be ‘supposed’ to happen, it certainly was more than apparent that you were... down in spirits.”_

“yeah,” Sans mumbled quietly, “things turned around. and, uh… what i guess i’m tryin’ to say is that… i don’t really feel like that anymore.”

_“Taking what life gives you, instead of being spiteful?”_

Sans laughed, surprised. “man, is that what it was?”

_“I may have misphrased that-”_

“nah, i think you nailed it,” Sans interrupted suddenly, an easy grin tugging at his teeth, “it’s `cause of you, i think.”

Grillby was silent in response, but the skeleton recognised the sound of the crisp crackle of fire in the background of the call as surprise. Sans grinned a little more, kicking another twig away as he strolled along.

“i mean it, firefly.”

There was something about the extended silence that made Sans feel a little bashful, although it was a particular twinge in his soul that made him laugh, as though the whole thing had been silly. Perhaps the pet name hadn’t been merited, but he had wanted to try.

_“Not fair… disarming me with terrible puns, and then saying something so incredibly heartfelt.”_

“you can’t see it now, but if i had ears, i’d be grinnin’ from one to the other,” Sans snickered again. “i _do_ mean it.”

 _“I know you do,”_ Grillby’s reply was warm and Sans was sure he could feel the heat through the cell phone and how it made his soul thump with feeling, _“I’m… glad.”_

Grillby refused to hang up despite the natural end to the conversation, which Sans appreciated to an extent. He was able to focus on the fry of oil in the background when the fire monster had orders to fulfill and occasionally Grillby would ask if the call was still connected. The gesture was meaningless yet appreciated - anything to keep Sans from falling victim to his own thoughts again.

For the moment, Sans had been able to dodge why he had been nervous or even frightened. Grillby hadn’t pressed it, but he knew the general inquiry would come along eventually.

As he approached the end of the crystal maze, Sans sighed against the mouthpiece of his phone as his shoes hit the rockier groundcover.

“think i’m `bout done with all this wet stuff,” he grumbled as he shuffled in place. His shoes made loud squashy, squeaking noises thanks to the marshy water. He sighed again as he approached the deep pools leading up towards the exit to Hotland with a stiff grimace and drew upon his reserves to manage an outflow of magic, bone constructs forming a floating bridge across the pond.

Testing its strength, Sans hesitantly settled one shoe atop of the first thick bone and when it didn’t sink or move, he continued onward, a little slowly. The echo flowers around him whispered nonsensically as he passed and Sans shivered a little, attempting to draw upon the fire monster’s company for comfort.

“this place’s soakin’ me to the bone! remind me to come by and give you a hug later.”

_“What makes you believe I’d accommodate a sopping skeleton? Perhaps I’ll be requiring a tab for hugs soo-”_

_‘S(SANS!!)ans(ans(nss)!!)s!! Wak(wake)e up(up)!!’_

The skeleton nearly dropped his phone as his entire body jolted with the shriek through the air from his blind side. It crackled, rasped and echoed along the water, sending a violent shudder through his bones as he stumbled from his upturned constructs. The volume wasn’t something that was normally heard in Waterfall and had hit him with such a start that he yelped in surprise and slipped off his makeshift bridge.

He ended up head-first into the water but it at least wasn’t too deep and his feet easily found the bottom of the pool. Unfortunately, his skull had flooded with revolting murky water and he sputtered as another shrill cry echoed from the flower nearby. Angrily, he swiped at it with a quickly manifested bone attack, cutting the flower in twain to silence it. The water reached up to the middle of his spine and he shuddered with a groan as the slick, wet marsh flooded his clothes.

_“...Are you there! Ans..er!”_

The skeleton coughed and opened his mouth to let the water drain from his skull with a shudder. “`oly shit. that was… unpleasant, t’say the least-”

 _“…hat happ…ed? ……you alrigh..?”_ Grillby sounded distressed enough that his voice was partially consumed by his element.

“no need to get so fired up. flowers are just givin’ me a bad time today.” Sans coughed to expel the remainder of the water from his skull, raising his elbows above the pool’s level with a grimace. “super soaked. add another hug to the tab, ok?”

 _“You-!”_ Now Grillby just sounded irritated. Better to tell him before he got hot-headed.

“think i found the place we landed, is all,” Sans shrugged to himself as he waded through the pool, his breaths chill and the sludge at the bottom of the pool was making his footsteps unsure, “when i, uh… last shortcut on our way through.”

There was silence for a whole lot longer than Sans had anticipated and he forced a laugh, suddenly self-conscious.

_“I… see.”_

“guess the echo flower caught your voice. you were really worried, huh?”

_“Of course, how could I not-”_

“enough to check, right?”

 _“I didn-”_ Grillby stopped. Sans could hear the way his flames bristled as though suddenly caught off-guard.

“busted.” The skeleton sighed, although his voice still shared the same old drawl. Somehow knowing when Grillby had Checked brought an odd peacefulness to his soul, despite how panicked he’d been when Sans first found out about it. “and now i know your dirty little secret.”

_“As much as I would enjoy having to endure your self-assertion for a more lengthy duration, I’ll have you know this was not when that particular event occured-”_

“gettin’ fired up again. y’sure, or do you not want me to be right?” Sans teased, wading to the end of the pond with a flinch of the lingering echo behind him. He heard Grillby groan quietly in exasperation.

_“...Is not.”_

“don’t think i’ve ever heard your voice like that,” the skeleton continued a little guiltily as he hoisted himself up over the edge of the embankment. “apart from ‘manners’, i guess.”

It was Grillby’s turn to sound a little embarrassed, _“Must we really bring that up again?”_

Sans laughed, “i dunno. it’s kinda funny now that i think about it.”

_“And… do you?”_

“do i what?”

_“Think about it.”_

“uh…” Sans grunted, allowing himself to flop down onto the shale rockface with a huff. He spotted scorch marks in a circumference around him and his eye lights drifted back to the deep expanse behind him. His soul suddenly sunk with what that meant - of Grillby carrying him, unconscious, through the rest of Waterfall. “oh… oh man, grillby.”

 _“...Didn’t mean it quite like that, sweet,”_ the fire monster laughed quietly as though to himself. _“...Was only teasing. No need to get excitable.”_

Sans would’ve caught the term of endearment, had he not felt such insurmountable guilt that plunged his thoughts deeper than the pool of water he was staring at. He opened his mouth a few times but words failed him, strangled by the memory and the ‘what ifs’ that had happened while Grillby carried his unconscious body the rest of the way through Waterfall. And of when he saw the old discoloured scarring on the other’s body…

“i’m sorry, grillby,” he said softly, his voice feeling hollow as it hit him harder than anything how much Grillby had risked himself to get them both to safety. “i fucked up. god, i really fucked up-”

 _“How many times must we be over this-”_ Grillby sounded a little exasperated again, but Sans cut him off.

“no, you don’t get it. i didn’t get it. it just.. clicked how bad it was for you. and on top of it all, you had to carry me the rest of the way, and through this pond? holy shit, man. i feel like the worst kinda garbage, and i’m really sorry. really-”

 _“Enough,”_ the fire monster chastised quietly. _“Really… saying such things as though you hadn’t put yourself at risk.”_

“what a fuckin’ day.”

 _“My sentiments exactly,”_ Grillby breathed quietly. _“You don’t need to worry about `little ol’ me`. It’s in the past, and done with. I don’t regret it, and even if I did, my conflict or blame would not be with you. I was… ill-prepared.”_

“i honestly thought it’d be easier than it was,” Sans grumbled from the ground. He traced his phalange against the scorched surface of the rockface and sighed heavily.

_“I don’t want you to linger on it.”_

“psh. no promises.”

_“You have promised before.”_

Sans gave a sidelong glance to the typha plants and tall grasses around him a little uneasily, then managed to laugh. “yeah.” He wasn’t about to say the reason, though.

_“...And why is that? I recall your adamancy on not making promises one of your core constitutions.”_

Sans stayed quiet but was able to ease out of his guilty thoughts as he pushed himself upright, water dripping from his soaked clothes.

 _“...Can make an assumption,”_ the fire monster added softly, _“`Maybe`.”_

“now you’re just being coy with me,” the skeleton muttered with a grunt of effort as he got to his feet and patted down his pockets. The few coins he had brought along were all there, his snacks definitely less edible than before, and the broken regulator was… well, not any less broken than it had started out before his trip.

_“`Maybe`.”_

Sans’ grin tugged a little more as he set off again down the expansive cave and bridges leading towards Hotland, noting how the temperature gradually shifted from lukewarm to even hotter. He listened as the other chuckled, filling his soul with a dancing light before he quelled it to hide it from anyone who might be watching, hand automatically going for his hoodie’s front.

“should probably let you go,” he finally said after a while, “you’re talkin’ my ear off, here.”

_“A feat, considering you do not have ears.”_

“m’pretty sure you might have customers who wanna chat with you.”

_“At me.”_

“still think it’s pretty sweet you only ever really chat with me,” Sans noted even more quietly. He lingered just outside the cave awning in Hotland, the thick heat filling his bones with comfortable warmth as the moisture steamed away from him. When Grillby only hummed in amusement on the other end, the skeleton grinned to himself. “ok, well. guess i’ll get goin’, then. love ya.”

And with that, he ended the call.

Then stared at his phone as though it morphed into something horrifying. To his credit, it _did,_ into a device that made him say stupid things because he was _so used_ to ending calls with his brother that way, and now-

Now it was ringing - and the call display indicated that it was Grillby again. Sans felt the heat of his magic flood his skull and shoulders as he pocketed the phone and turned on his heel towards Alphys’ lab, every part of him screaming.

_What did you do!?!_

Ducking his skull into the hood of his jacket, Sans relented and looked at his phone again when it finally stopped ringing.

Two missed phone calls and one text message just came in.

hotstuff (Last message received 2:13pm);

\- You shy thing! Answer your phone, please.

[ Incoming Call: hotstuff ]

Sans swallowed and drew in a deep breath to calm down, automatically tapping to accept the call; “h-heya.”

There was the predictable faint hum of fire from the other line as he heard, very lowly, _“Love ya too,”_ before the call abruptly ended.

The words sent a dense shock through his soul and Sans stared at his phone, dumbfounded. A steady incline of elation built up inside of him and the world passed him by for quite awhile as he lingered on it. Grillby hadn’t freaked out as he did.

He… said it back.

Just like when he admitted his feelings to him after tumbling from the bar.

Just like now, whenever he admitted something to the fire monster, Grillby would echo it back.

 _Me too._ It just _worked_ with them.

Sans kept the feeling all to himself when he finally was able to move, soul fluttering both heavy and light as he trudged his way toward the Hotland Lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon for the echo flower corridor where Papyrus is nervous about hearing them (at least on your ingame phone call with him), they are only moderately coherent for a short amount of time before becoming unintelligible and creepy. That and the echo flower that housed Grillby’s frightened and panicked yell probably scared more than half a dozen monsters going through to Hotland. XDDD;;;;;;


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans returns the broken regulator to Alphys, and is followed through the CORE by a malevolent presence. Papyrus and Sans have a long overdue talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **content warning(s):** panic attack, mentions of past child abuse (non-sexual), mentions of past medical abuse

Alphys regarded the skeleton after welcoming him into her lab. His ever-present grin appeared to be a little too easy than what was normal and his eye sockets were half lidded as though he didn’t have a care in the world. In fact, his entire posture was slack and relaxed, with his hands buried in his pockets despite how damp his clothing was.

He just grinned at her, not saying anything. For a moment, Alphys thought she could see a pulse of subtle light under his hoodie before it was muted, then it disappeared.

It was like he was in a good mood!

“S-so? It… It looks as though you’ve… calmed down?”

He gave in to a snicker and shrugged. “guess so.”

Alphys was immediately bubbling with excitement; seeing Sans as he was meant that the regulator had worked and she was very pleased about that! She tugged him further into the lab so he could be seated and she could remove it. Once upon the computer chair, Sans pulled something out of his pocket and held it concealed in his hand for her to take.

Curious, Alphys pushed her glasses back and held her hand out in silence. Then when the familiar metal pieces hit her extended claw, she felt an ebb of disappointment crush her body and she couldn’t help the strangled noises that escaped her in lieu of words.

“uh, it didn’t hold up.”

Alphys turned abruptly and grabbed the nearest thing on the desk with a quick roll. She whacked him with it over the skull, the magazine making hilarious fluttering noises as well as cutting off Sans’ protests.

“jeez, hey-”

“Th-th-that-!” she tried, upset. She gave him another smack with the magazine for good measure. “How? _H-how!?_ How d-do you manage to break _every_ invention I g-g-give to you!!”

“hey, hold up-” Sans grimaced and covered his skull to ward off the attack, “-it wasn’t workin’ so i just…” His excuses petered out. “ok, well to be fair, it lasted for awhile.”

“I, I can’t _b-b-b-believe_ you!!” Alphys wailed and Sans shrunk down a little guiltily as she went over the broken, mud-covered pieces in her hands, “I, I could’ve repaired it if it was j-just broken - which I don’t even know how the heck you managed _that_ \- but… but _water damage_ too!? You c-completely fried the circuitry, Sans! Do you know how difficult it is to synthesise the required materials for even a _cell phone!?”_

Sans shrank down, his grin uneasy; of course he knew. “alph, c’mon-”

She reached over and swatted him with the magazine once more for good measure. With a flare of annoyance, he grabbed it from her and she flinched visibly, but instead of retaliating he tossed it over his shoulder.

“m’sorry, ok?” There was something to his apology, but Alphys wasn’t about to let up. “i’ll make it up to you.”

Alphys snorted quietly in derision and leaned against the desk, a tower of instant noodle bowls threatening to topple when she did so. “Anything?”

Sans’ eye sockets narrowed uneasily. “within reason.”

“Yes, yes, I know-” she sighed and grabbed her scanner from behind a mountain of paperwork and rubbed the screen on her sleeve. “Here, l-line up?”

Sans bristled as she held out the device to scan him, his eye lights flicking from the scanner to Alphys’ face in muted shock. Whatever reverie he was enveloped in before suddenly melted away in a throb of barely contained panic. “you serious?”

“N-no, but we have to continue until y-you’re at _least_ done the aggression stage,” she muttered as the skeleton backed up against the chair uncomfortably.

“m’not blockin’ you, so hold off on that,” he protested uneasily.

“I, I know that! But I n-need the extended printout.”

“h-how about just usin’ the last scan,” he muttered, staring at the scanner. “i hope you’re destroyin’ all the evidence after this, girl.”

Alphys sighed heavily in irritation and snapped at him, “Stop it!”

Sans stiffened against the back of the chair and glowered at the scanner until she pulled it away and she studied it for a moment. There was a long awkward silence before he allowed himself to relax enough to idly swivel the chair.

“so… we good?”

“Mew Mew Kissie Cutie the Musical!” she suddenly said without looking up. “On Ice!”

Sans snerked quietly, then realised she wasn’t kidding. “oh. c’mon, that’s not fair.”

“A-and you’re not allowed to grump the whole way through!” Actually, it was more likely that he would snooze all the way through, if she didn’t excitedly prod him the entire time.

“i refuse.”

“Y-you won’t!” Alphys suddenly seemed very sure of herself as she glossed over the screen, her toothy grin almost sinister. Then she set down the scanner and picked up her phone, tapped a few buttons, and turned it around to show him.

Sans tried his very best not to look like he was affected. He was being shown of a slightly filtered, over exposed photo of himself and Grillby, faces locked together in a deep kiss. The skeleton realised that it had likely been taken by her at the restaurant. He tried to restrict his inappropriately reacting magic and leaned against the arm of the chair in a show of indifference.

“so..? i got one of `im too.”

His objection had its intended effect on the royal scientist and she huffed softly. “G-guess it doesn’t matter if I… I upload it to the UnderNet’s ‘Cutest Couples’ group then?” She made a show of raising a single claw up and then back down, hovering over the ‘send’ button.

Sans couldn’t help but tense visibly at the threat, eye lights fixated on the phone. “you wouldn’t…”

“I mean, it’s not as though you’ve never seen Mew Mew b-before? One eentsie little evening with your b-best gal pal?”

Sans winced. “ok, fine, you extortionist. but... season two’s still got my heartstrings all a pitter-patter.”

Alphys threw down her fist, “Se-season two is an abomination and we’ve been o-o-o-over this!”

Being coerced and exploited into agreeing to a view-in left a sour taste in his mouth, but soon Sans was on his way through Hotland to the resort after a short briefing from Alphys about his ‘progress’. It appeared that his magic had stabilised to her satisfaction and his maturation rate was just over 90-percent, so he could worry less about potential outbursts of aggression and focus more on other things. Namely more studying, as Alphys was disappointed with his biological ignorance.

She touched briefly upon the rumour of the avalanche in Snowdin Forest and how there didn’t seem to be any seismic activity to its cause, so Sans had to confess, albeit dodgingly. While she had been upset enough to whack him with the magazine for breaking her regulator, she was just… _stunned_ when he accepted the blame for it.

She told him he was growing up - but the fact he had caused environmental damage had to be reported to Undyne, since she had been the one to ask Alphys to look into it in the first place. Sans wasn’t looking forward to that, so left in a somewhat soured mood.

Hotland was definitely more comfortable than Waterfall, despite all of its puzzles. Regardless, he wandered through after reflecting on some of Grillby’s bypasses and easily glided by on conveyors. It was all rather uneventful. No shrieking echo flowers could ever survive in the stifling thick heat.

He was moderately sweating by the time he reached the resort. Wiping over his skull with his sleeve, Sans paused to grab a burger at the concession and was disappointed at the flavour. It seemed that all the MTT hype was just that, and the food was just as dodgy as its customer service. For this instance only, he wished he didn’t have the capability to taste but choked down the sequin-laden burger before leaving.

Huffing a breath in preparation, Sans regarded the steel-clad portal leading to the CORE. A shudder passed through his body as several memories bubbled to the surface, bones pricking with defensive magic as his feet protested with every step he took. He would be fine, he thought chastisingly. Papyrus was inside. He would be waiting for him and they would go home together.

The acrid yet clear smell of ozone hit his senses and he recoiled at the entrance to the area, hesitating. It had been awhile since he had come here all alone, preferring to take his shortcuts to bypass the area altogether or simply use the elevator, which he had tried, but it still seemed out of order. The fact he had held together so well the previous pass through was only because of Grillby, and even then he was still jumpy. Something had been tracking his every move.

Begrudgingly, Sans stuffed his hands into his pockets and wrung the fleecy lining in between his digits with every moment that passed. He needed to go inside, that he knew. He had to force himself. The memory was still clear of the malaise that overcame him at the security panel and how something had flickered over his hand.

And those haunting gestures.

Exhaling in preparation, Sans’ shoes passed the threshold and his entire body tensed.

Nothing happened, but it didn’t stop the weary tug at his soul and every fibre of his bones from screeching in fear. He felt the old panic, the old fright that recalled old memories. Old breaths that laboured as Papyrus attempted to heal him after his fall into the magic matrix of the CORE, of him saying soothing and reassuring lies to him that they would go home together.

Sans’ breaths shuddered as he took the first step forward. The area was subtly cool yet humid, warm yet chilly. He knew he was panicking already and had to draw strength from inside himself until he found his brother.

He wasn’t a child. He would deal with it.

His other foot took a step.

He was shaking.

“damn it,” he grunted, his eye lights searching the expanse in front of him. The cobalt and indigo hues bounced off the polished crystalline floors and onto him from the lights above, tinting everything an unnerving blue. Red would have been more relaxing. Orange, yellow, gold. Sans felt himself calm down considerably, the back of his mind taunting him that the colours matched what he thought ‘love’ would look like.

He was well aware of what those colours actually were.

His pace was slow - a lot slower than his and Grillby’s way through. Whereas he had the pleasure of feigning bravery for the bartender’s sake, Sans now felt alone, isolated, almost forgotten amongst the hum of electronics in the tight echoing space.

What had he told Grillby before? He didn’t like the vibe. That was an understatement, considering the memories were lapsing and hazy, their subject matter akin to a traumatic constraint. It made him feel as though it was something Papyrus had told him long ago, to make him feel as though his memories hadn’t scattered into the CORE. He suspected, in private moments of desperation to figure things out, that when he was Falling Down, his memories had been shattering, the first things to crumble as his brother carried him through.

On more than one occasion, he had believed his favourite thing was Papyrus, so dying in his brother’s arms wouldn’t have been so bad-

Except that was a horribly selfish thought. The CORE took him back to those days. Where every step of life was invalid. He had to learn to move, how to breathe again. He had to relearn how to write with his remaining arm, to train what little magic remained to hold himself together. To force limbs that were dead to mimic life. Several months passed before he was dragged out of the lab and into the Hotland heat despite his protests to stay.

Being knocked down from 920 points to a singularity had been the biggest hurdle to overcome. Papyrus and Alphys had been patient with him to help him learn his limitations, but the number of medical procedures and Alphys’ Determination theories had become a wash of terror through his medical trauma - something he’d suffered through even before his Fall.

The skeleton hunched inwards on himself, his sockets hollowing in his dark thoughts. He felt as though everything was closing in on him. Bad thoughts, bad times.

Bad memories - ones he tried to discard, no matter how many times he attempted to push them away, they always came back with a vengeance. It was those, alongside the persistent feeling that _something_ or _someone_ had gone missing at the same time, that made it all feel extremely unwholesome.

Sans’ feet led him up the tight corridor and into the next area where the flood of blinding white light shot up from below the catwalks. His magic was condensing around his bones in an effort to remain calm, to remain on the defensive as he crept his way through. To mimic his brother’s magic in a soothing way.

It took a lot longer than he would’ve liked to make his way through. The place screamed silently at him in uneasy, creeping malaise, as though the few who dropped below were never seen again. Because they left no dust behind, their memory didn’t persist either.

A shiver etched into his very being, threatening to keep him frozen on the spot as he neared a resting area. The walls shimmered with the pulse of magi-electric energy and the thrum of it all set his bones in an agitated state. His breathing had gone deep and stuttered as he attempted to keep calm.

He hadn’t passed anyone on the way through - he was hoping that there would be someone to chat with as he passed, but Sans was left alone with more thoughts of something, someone, missing.

Sans decided he couldn’t do it. He pulled out his phone to dial Papyrus and raised it to the side of his skull, his other hand covering his face as he pushed away his panic.

It rung twice before the other end picked up as usual, but without his brother’s careening, boisterous voice, the line buzzed with an echo of static and jarring tones. Blinking at his phone, he ended the call and tried again.

This time it sounded like an old modem, one of Alphys’ old inventions before she perfected the intranet for the Underground to use. It was buried in a harsh static and Sans attempted to push several buttons before finally pushing his voice out; “uh.. hello?”

The reply was an old crackle of static that set his teeth on edge. Sans recognised the tone and words, however they weren’t anything he had heard before. The phrases set him on edge, whispering, rattling, a thousand voices to one garbled mess.

  
  


_[ C̹̝̫̥̼ͭ̑̎̓ȏ̺̗̿̾̕m̧̫̗̘̖̲͋͐̃ͮe̦̰͍̼͂ͦ ͚͇̖͆́̑̏͛jͥ̂ͥ̎̃͋̔҉͍̫o̙͕̤ͦ̐͡i̬̼̯̰̬̫͞n͓̖ͪ̓͂ͮ̔̃ͬ ̻͓͢t̯̮ͬ̌͌ẖ̻ͯ̓̑ͧͪ͘e͕͍̻͙̯͐̈͌͑̓ ͉̮̞̘̮̉̽́̈́ͭ̚f̥͙̆̈̂̄u͆̂̃̆̋̚͏͔n̷̖͎͓̂͛ ]_

  
Staring at his phone, Sans realised how badly he was shaking. It… It was just interference, since he was so close to the magic matrix, right? The geothermal energy was likely mixing up the phone signals. The magi-electric dissonance was at most, a hindrance to deal with while he was working through his own projects…

At any rate, he was in no proper mental state to continue through the CORE on his own and abruptly ended the call when the voices repeated themselves, stuffing his phone into his pocket with a deep, unnerved inhale. Rattling now, he turned on his heel to go back to the resort and froze in his tracks.

Something had been there, watching from behind him, only to flutter away in a wisp of a thick, gushing mass. Frozen, Sans stared at the area, his grin tightening as every fear welled up inside. Something was watching him here, stalking him as he walked with such unfathomable intent. It tugged at every horror in his mind, focusing on them, every nightmare and trauma melding into a horrible entity that he couldn’t shake, as though those very thoughts were feeding the… _being,_ or whatever it was.

It was not like the amalgamates beneath the Lab. They were curious, blended together to feel and need as the monsters that it comprised of. This was… different. Disgusting. Twisted. Repellent of any wayward happiness he felt earlier that day. It erased it and pawed at his fears, a low drop high in the ceilings punctuating every shock.

He was stuck. Frozen. He couldn’t be saved, couldn’t save others. Papyrus was gone. He was gone. A figure with a pale face. Multiple figures with murderous smiles, unnerving, untouchable, tangling within his bones, pulling apart his soul, breaking his bones, his smile, ending whatever furtive happiness he still clung to. Echo flowers that would snigger and shuffle behind him as he tried to live his life until they all suddenly went mute.

He was caught in an endless loop, a silent scream halted before it could escape. He was shaking as he recalled words that had been whispered to him before.

_Fall. Lost. Found._

_Bid. Curl._

_Meld. Absorb. Bone. Break._

_Consume._

They echoed on in a loop, carved into the innermost side of his skull. The scraping, _god, the scraping._ Chiseling the words into his skull to leave a mark forever, his breathing escalated to the point where his magic took over automatically, drawing in energy from the dense air around him. In an attempt to abate the whittling noise from the inside of his skull, he grasped at the sides of his face, willing his feet to _move._

He had to escape. He had to flee. He drew everything inward, subconsciously pushing against hands that found him, cored, faded, bloodied and marred. Sans knew who they belonged to and he struggled to escape - he had to find the ground, to use a shortcut, _anything._ His magic echoed the bright white and azure around him, _melding_ into him, making him absorb everything regardless of ill intent.

His flux constricted inside of his bones, every physical remainder of his body cracking, splintering off into shards. He was _breaking,_ unable to resist the dense pressure around him, threatening to turn him into dust. Voices that were far away screamed at him, yelled at him, taunting him and breaking him down.

It hurt. It hurt so _fucking much._ Sans cried against the terror and the pain, white needles of agony lighting inside of him as the accumulated energy surged outwards and he was finally able to flee.

When he landed, Sans collapsed to his knees, his phalanges screeching against the glass tile of the CORE’s crystalline floors, as though gauging the depth of reality. His sockets remained hollowed out, his entire body trembling violently as he dared to raise his skull. There was a deep echoing pain that drummed inside, making his vision blurred and uneven, but he could make out the figure in the distance.

There were several in fact, all dressed in long lab coats, a blur of white in the haunting azure landscape around him. Several voices echoed along the corridor he was in as they quickly approached and Sans tensed.

No. _No!_

One he recognised - beyond a shadow of a doubt. He didn’t want to see again, not in nightmares, not in painful recollections of his childhood, not _anytime._ Another scream stuck in his rib cage as the figure drew near, visage cracked in several places, teeth bared, skull narrow and eye sockets hollowed in disdain and utter contempt.

Sans drew in his magic again and warped away to escape, every fibre of his being protesting against the heat of quickly expended energy. At the tail end of his warp he could hear a familiar voice sharply call out, broken off as reality closed around him with a wrenching, tearing sound.

The next room had him stumbling, it a little lower than his previous location. Sans’ steps were unsure in his panic as the trashcan next to him upended and he careened into the wall, thankful for something solid to hold him steady. He was shaking, rattling so loudly. He had to stop, he _had_ to stop, otherwise the royal scientist would find him, and-

He heard many pairs of footsteps clanging against the grate of the floors outside the room he was in.

 _Oh god._ They were _searching for him-_

“There!”

Sans shuddered down into his hood, his hands flying up to his skull to shield himself from another flurry of disembodied hands. His breaths were so fast and shallow in panic that they did little to draw in magic from his surroundings to replenish his flux and his magic petered out against the next draw to warp away again.

Futilely, he gasped and flailed against the pair of skeletal hands on him, how they forced him forward, drawing him towards the other. Sans gritted his teeth through a low whimper, his hollowed sockets shutting tightly against the sight, pretending he was somewhere else, anywhere but there-

“Sans!”

The skeleton shook his skull, a choked noise coming from him as he attempted to warp away again. It chipped at his health and he winced, doubling over to the side as his unintended carry-on prevented an even flow to exploit the gridline. Sans hissed in pain and in his panic, shoved away at the hands, clutching at his sternum to ease away the angry throb in his soul.

 _“Sans!”_ The voice tried again, this time sounding more distressed. That couldn’t be right though - the voice was almost always stern, disgusted, condemning-

_“Brother!”_

As though it was a beacon of hope itself, Sans stopped, although his breaths still stuttered to contain his panic. His rib cage rose and fell with painful gasps, his bones weary from their constant struggle and rattling. He was afraid to open his eye sockets, gritting his teeth so tightly that he was sure they’d splinter under the pressure.

“...brother?” his voice was tight and shaky, a whisper amongst the fears Sans felt.

“Yes, brother! It’s me, Papyrus!” the familiar voice said again, then the tug towards him started again, making Sans tense. “It’s alright! I’ve got you! You’re safe! So stop… stop trying to… to use ‘shortcuts’?”

Sans inhaled a shuddering breath before opening his left eye socket, then his other. His sockets remained hollow and his permanent grin tight, every bone feeling dislodged as tremors shook him.

“i-i saw-” he whispered, his voice strained, “i… i saw th-the doctor, p-pap, i saw, please-”

“Calm down!” his brother said loudly, his voice cutting through him like a knife. Sans tensed as the other’s hands settled on his shoulders. For one horrifying moment, the younger brother’s sockets split into two different directions, a loud _crack_ as the chips taken out of his face grew towards his mandible and temple.

Sans shrank back, his own sockets wide in fright, his voice stuck on the first syllable of an unknown monster’s name. “g-gast-”

That was it, wasn’t it? The reason he pushed Papyrus away during these moments. He had grown to look like _him,_ the difference between the two monsters in his life so similar that it was difficult to crush memories of their father altogether. Gritting his teeth again, Sans let out a horrified noise.

“Sans, please listen to me,” Papyrus pleaded, his own sockets searching the hollow vacancies of his brother’s. “Who did you see? Who’s Gast? Why are you so-” As though it suddenly dawned on him, the younger brother plucked at his lab coat and unbuttoned it with one hand to pull it off, then flung it to the side out of sight.

He understood. He remembered the way Sans panicked after his Fall although he didn’t know why it set him off. He had a feeling the traumatic reaction had something to do with all the times Sans would come home in their youth exhausted and trembling, so kept a sturdy hand on his brother, who was still rattling loudly.

After a moment, Sans’ body untensed enough that his hands found Papyrus’ forearm and sternum, clinging to the bright orange shirt as he hunched inwards with a shuddering breath. He clenched his grip so hard Papyrus grimaced and had to untangle his brother’s phalanges from his rib cage and pull him close, burying his skull against his clavicle.

“You’re safe, Sans! Tell me what happened, please!”

“i,” the other tried, still jittery, “i saw him. i know i did, pap, i’m sorry-”

“YOU SAW _ME!”_ Papyrus grunted, pushing his brother against him in a crushing hug, “I WAS TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION! BUT YOU RAN! AND THEN YOU… DISAPPEARED.”

“dis-” Right. His shortcuts, he realised with a little more clarity.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME!”

“i _tried-”_ Sans hissed against his brother’s shoulder, “i fuckin’ _tried,_ the call didn’t… it didn’t go through, and i…” He whimpered against his brother’s body as Papyrus patted his back. “i freaked out.”

“I KNOW,” Papyrus’ tone was admonishing. “YOU DID ME A BIG FRIGHT, BROTHER!” His sockets narrowed at Sans’ soft scoff from buried between them. “I’M BEING UTTERLY SERIOUS, SANS! WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST WAIT AT THE HOTEL? YOU COULD HAVE JUST DROPPED THE NAME OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND THE RECEPTIONIST WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU A KEY. OR YOU SHOULD’VE JUST… STAYED.”

“m’sorry-”

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Papyrus retorted hotly, his embrace tightening so suddenly that Sans yelped in surprise. “I DIDN’T EXPECT YOU TO MEET ME _IN_ THE CORE, YOU SILLY PILE OF BONES! WHY YOU WOULD THINK THAT IS NECESSARY, I’LL NEVER KNOW.”

“you needed me. as the big bro, i had a familial duty,” Sans offered a little tightly. Papyrus relaxed his hold on him, glad his brother’s panic had subsided enough for him to make sarcastic jokes, at least.

Papyrus sighed in exasperation and pulled away to look Sans in the face. His eye lights were still gone, as though shame shook him down to his core and he didn’t want to look at him. Now that he was able to take in Sans’ appearance, Papyrus couldn’t believe how _filthy_ he looked. Mud stained his jacket and dirt fell off of him whenever he moved. With a halfhearted grumble, the younger brother gave Sans a light rap on the skull.

“YOU WORRY ME.”

Sans hung his skull, silent for a moment. “i know.”

“AND… I HAVE A QUESTION,” Papyrus added quietly, “MORE THAN MANY QUESTIONS. THAT YOU’LL ANSWER, BECAUSE IT IS HIGH TIME YOU COME CLEAN ABOUT SOME THINGS!”

His brother shrunk down a little more, as though he was being scolded. “thought i was the big brother,” he muttered wryly, his teeth tugging in a false grin.

“YOU ARE MOST CERTAINLY THE BIG BROTHER! IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT I MUST BE THE MOM, OBVIOUSLY, SINCE I CAN’T TRUST YOU TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. LOOK AT YOU!”

Sans flinched, but he knew what Papyrus was doing. He was shifting his panic away with menial conversation. To an extent, it was working, and Sans appreciated it. But at the same time, the older brother knew that something was off about the exchange.

It took them a great deal longer to reach the resort again, due to Sans’ agitation. Although he had apparently expended a good deal of magic in his panicked state, Sans did not appear exhausted in the slightest. It was a different kind of fatigue; along the way Papyrus had Checked him and found him to be at 15 points - a shock, but lately it was more and more evident Sans’ maturation was progressing to the point where holding a healthy level of HP was getting easier, even if his base stat did not change. Papyrus and Alphys had chatted briefly about it after he popped by for a visit.

Papyrus sighed as he carefully unlocked the door to his hotel room back at MTT Resort. Sans hung close to him, acting aloof, yet Papyrus knew he was still on edge. It was only when his brother strolled up to the bed and collapsed onto it that a sharp bark of protest passed his teeth. Sans was, after all, _extremely dirty,_ and him rolling all over the nice clean sheets Papyrus had insisted upon during his stay made a strangled noise erupt from him.

“YOUR JACKET-” he quipped agitatedly when Sans gave him a concerned look. Then his brother sighed and got up, unzipped his hoodie and tossed it on the ground in an unceremonious mess. Papyrus groaned and covered his face. “I CAN ONLY IMAGINE WHAT THE HOUSE LOOKS LIKE IN MY ABSENCE.”

“your mind’s not that filthy,” Sans drawled nonchalantly, stretching out so his mud-caked shoes hung over the side of the mattress. Papyrus flinched at the insinuation that the house was indeed that bad, or his brother thought him a saint of some sort, and also as several pops and snaps filled the air. “so, `bout this missin’ friend o’ yours-”

“WE AREN’T TALKING ABOUT THAT NOW AND I AM VERY DISTRESSED YOU WOULD-” Papyrus stopped his tangent short when he drew nearer to wipe the dregs of sand off the sheet and caught the sight of his brother’s neck bones, just peeking out into view from his collar. Dark, etched little marks covered most of his cervical vertebrae that were likely to fade with time, but if the high collared shirt his brother wore was anything to go by, Sans likely had those on purpose. Due to… his boyfriend, quite possibly. Very possibly.

Sans was watching him intently and merely shrugged at his brother’s silence. It had been awhile since they’d seen each other, possibly the longest duration ever. Papyrus seemed to reel himself in from staring at him and continued where he left off a little awkwardly.

“-I’M VERY UPSET THAT YOU WOULD TURN THE CONVERSATION AWAY FROM YOURSELF YET AGAIN! YOU ALWAYS DO THIS, HIDING, AND RUNNING FROM ME? I DON’T UNDERSTAND!”

Something in Sans’ sockets seemed hurt and he avoided Papyrus’ look.

“AND IT’S VERY CLEAR TO ME NOW WHAT YOUR ‘SHORTCUTS’ HAVE MEANT THIS ENTIRE TIME! REALLY, SANS! I’M SHOCKED!”

Said monster shrugged again, halfheartedly.

“-HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS, I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN? HOW DO YOU DO IT? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IT? WHY DID YOU KEEP WHAT IT WAS A SECRET FROM ME, YOUR BROTHER, YOUR FAMILY! - AND WHY YOU GO INTO THE CORE ON A WHIM BECAUSE YOUR PHONE DIDN’T WORK? DID ALPHYS NOT FIX IT? I THOUGHT SHE FIXED IT!”

He fixated on Sans’ phone while the older brother closed his eye sockets with a dejected sigh. It was just as he’d feared - Papyrus was riling himself up worrying about imaginary complications, what would happen if he went too far, if he appeared near the Barrier, if he _hit_ the Barrier.

A loud thumping knock pounded from the other side of the wall and Papyrus ended his loud diatribe of worried hypotheticals with a hand slapped over his teeth.

Sans inhaled slowly, the constant nagging of guilt built up inside of him, but it felt normal. Reassuring, as strange as that sounded. “fine. whatever. i guess a little before we left new home,” he relented quietly. “before i made the boxes.”

“INV-” Papyrus checked his volume with the muffled groan of irritation from next door. “Invented, or created?”

“either one,” Sans replied dismissively, barely moving his legs when his brother sauntered over and perched himself at the other side of the bed.

“Alright… That is! Still! Suspicious! But I’ll allow you this silly secret, even though it’s beyond trite at this conjuncture.” Sans breathed a sigh of relief, but it was cut off when Papyrus asked next, “Who did you see at the CORE?”

It was awhile before he replied, so long that Papyrus was growing irritable and dismayed that he wasn’t being given an answer. Sans huffed out a breath, mingling with a pathetic laugh, “someone i thought was long gone.”

“A good someone… or a bad someone?”

Sans turned his head away from Papyrus and plucked at the sheet at his side, a cold feeling welling up in his soul at the memory.

“I didn’t see anyone, Sans. I think you… just had a panic attack-” Papyrus offered kindly, “I don’t know who this ‘Gast’ is-”

“gaster,” Sans whispered, his voice hollow. Memories disappeared as quickly as they were brought up; the pylons, the infusions, multiple hands, a cracked face that glared down at him throughout every milestone in his youth. Suddenly the feeling of seeing his own dust on his hands came to Sans’ mind and he flinched visibly. “do you honestly think i wanna talk about this?”

“Well… to be honest? No! But you… so rarely talk to me about your problems. Conjecture being what it is, I don’t very well wish to assume and there are only so many conclusions I can come up with by myself.”

That stung. Sans tilted his skull to the other side so he could regard his brother, creases of concern marring his younger brother’s face and his phalanges tugging at themselves in their usual, fidgety way. He took it in for a moment as he realised just what he’d done - blocked out his brother this entire time, when Papyrus had no one else to talk to. He was in the dark as much as Sans put him through, and he felt so hopelessly guilty over it.

It loomed over him, decision after bad decision cloaking him in self-loathing that he pushed himself up, hanging his hands in his lap as his legs drew inwards. Papyrus didn’t even say anything about his mud-caked shoes on the bed - that’s how much this all bothered him, Sans realised.

“you, uh… really know how to put things into startlin’ reality, paps,” he offered apologetically. “ok. where to even start…”

Papyrus grinned at him encouragingly but Sans knew it was forced. He saw the glimmer of hope in his brother’s sockets, a silent little twinkle he could spot from a mile away, that now he realised it had been absent for quite some time.

“Generally… the beginning is best, isn’t it, brother?”

It took a lot of coaxing for his body to cooperate with Papyrus’ questions. Every word seemed to be like a trigger, threatening to undo what grip on the world that Sans had remaining. Papyrus held him fast as he spoke, brokenly, about what he saw in the CORE and how it correlated with things from his past, _their_ past, things that were hidden yet out in the open. Of things they hid to themselves if only to protect one another.

“Medical… experiments,” Papyrus’ voice was tight with anger - Sans knew it wasn’t directed at him, but he couldn’t help but shrink into himself. As he felt Sans’ unease, Papyrus sighed and softened his tone, “I knew something wasn’t right…”

“you were young, papyrus, you couldn’t’ve done anything,” the other tried to protest.

Papyrus shook his skull and leaned against Sans, drawing his arm around his shoulders to keep him close and keep him calm. “Wowie… Suddenly a lot makes sense.” Sans flinched, feeling more than a little self-conscious at the attention. “Allow me to go over this linearly-”

Sans grimaced and bowed his skull even more. He had honestly thought that Papyrus wouldn’t try to puzzle everything out immediately. He was in dire need of sleep, his figurative nerves fried.

“Starting during early youth and into teen years, he gave you ‘medicine’-” Papyrus saw the flinch and patted his brother’s skull in reassurance, “-because your HP was… too high?”

“yep.”

“That makes very little sense to me, I’m afraid.”

“ties into other stuff i, uh… can’t quite talk about yet.”

“He had many hands… this… ‘Gaster’,” Papyrus continued thoughtfully, his brow bone knitted in concern, “You know, I think I recall something like this? But then… maybe not. It sounds familiar, but I am certain I’ve never heard of him before?”

“he’s gone,” Sans echoed for the umpteenth time that hour. “he isn’t remembered.” He just knew it, a private theory he couldn’t describe in his mind.

“He passed,” his younger brother repeated, and for a startling moment Sans felt guilt and horror grip him, “Where is his dust? Did he have proper funerary arrangements? Does his family know?”

“bro… _we_ are his family.”

“Are? Didn’t you say he passed? I don’t remember any fam…” Papyrus trailed off when he saw his brother’s look, feeling confused himself. It was a peculiar sensation when his memory was very diligent, and he could recall nothing like this mystery family member they allegedly had? At some point? Whom was now… not in their lives at all?

Sans… wasn’t pranking him right now, was he? He seemed entirely too serious. It was too serious to joke about!

Sans felt the grip over his soul tighten and his eye lights faded from his sockets. He remembered reaching into the CORE in a panic, the magic matrix or something like it pulling him in… and then nothing.

Maybe the doctor had been important in their lives, which is why he felt so… conflicted about everything suddenly. Important didn’t necessarily mean good, and Sans found himself going over the events piece by piece to his best recollection. All he knew was that same malaise when he put the pieces together between the missing doctor and the old royal scientist.

And they were related - a father. He felt the flux in his bones seize with the connection.

“...yeah, papyrus. he’s gone.” At least there was that, he hoped silently. “like you said. he’s not here. he can’t hurt anyone anymore.”

Eventually they relaxed enough to lie down. Sans kicked off his shoes while Papyrus silently shook the sand from the sheets and laid down beside him. They stared up at the ceiling, the quiet extending between them. The older brother dozing lightly, finally, before Papyrus decided to speak, his voice soft.

“Why don’t _I_ remember him..?”

Sans tilted his skull towards Papyrus’ with a soft click when he stretched out, his hand connecting with the other’s arm. “you were too young, papybro.”

Papyrus was still a little confused, considering how everything lined up… it was as though he was trying to puzzle something out that had no tangible material to work with, and he had heard the rules in a dream. “Why don’t _you_ remember?”

Sans sighed softly, moving his hand again and letting it drop against Papyrus’ ribs. “i don’t wanna remember, maybe.”

“Was he that bad?”

“worse, maybe.”

“Worse than bad…” Papyrus sighed in defeat. “I can’t imagine it.”

“hey, cool guys like you don’t gotta imagine the bad stuff. just focus on the future, on the great things. like my best bro.”

“You’re dodging again, brother,” Papyrus grumbled sourly.

Sans laughed, the sound strained. “yeah, i am.” After a few moments of uneasy silence, he turned his skull away so he couldn’t see his brother and closed his eye sockets, his voice dipping in register. “it’s hard to talk about.”

“At least tell me?”

He had a point, Sans thought. If no one else, if no therapists, no close friends to divulge this information to… then who else was left? There was no way in hell that he’d reveal this kind of thing to Grillby, after all. Shifting against the warm covers on the bed, the older brother huffed out a drawn out sigh.

“he didn’t give me a choice. and he-” No. Wait, Sans’ thoughts cut him off prematurely. He couldn’t tell Papyrus that his own little brother was used as collateral against him. “he wasn’t a good dad. good dads don’t hurt their kids.”

Several moments passed and Sans kept his eye sockets closed, but relaxed a little against the covers. For awhile, all he heard was his and Papyrus’ breathing and the tick of the clock on the small desk nearby.

He was about to fall asleep when he heard the unmistakable noise - a wet sounding inhale that sounded muted and strained. Cracking open his left eye socket, Sans turned his head to regard his brother as he nearly felt his soul crack with guilt.

“I’M NOT CRYING-” Papyrus said emphatically, covering his eye sockets with his forearm in a vain attempt to cover up his lie. “I’M NOT!”

“pap…” Sans rolled up onto his side, feeling the twinge of guilt coil like a snake around his soul alongside the chill. “see, this’s why i never wanted to talk about it,” he mumbled halfheartedly and scratched at the side of his brother’s skull in a gesture of comfort.

“I HATE HIM! I DON’T REMEMBER HIM BUT I KNOW THAT’S WHAT I FEEL!”

“volume, bro - and no you don’t. you ain’t got it in ya to hate,” the older brother grunted and flopped overtop of Papyrus’ ribs to pin him down. “your heart’s too great.”

Papyrus whined through clenched teeth.

“it’s just fate,” Sans tried again, attempting to joke to alleviate the mood. “with you balancin’ plates, and your brother the… reprobate?”

“UGH.” Papyrus shoved at him, then immediately slung an arm around Sans and brought him into a crushing hug. “YOU ARE BY FAR THE WORST.” His tone held no venom and his brother grinned at him awkwardly.

“hey, that didn’t rhyme. you lose,” Sans mumbled against his brother’s shirt, the tension easing out of his body with his brother’s usual reprimand over his jokes. “love ya too.”

“I missed you,” Papyrus agreed quietly as Sans patted his back, “I might… apologise for frightening you.”

“might?”

“You know what I mean!”

“ok.”

“And don’t you even start with the ‘ok’s!” Papyrus snapped, wiping at his sockets with his fingers as best as he could manage.

“ok-” Sans yelped as he was shoved off the side of the bed in a heap and laughed out loud. “that was the last one, so technically i ended with them, right?”

A pillow was thrust at his skull from above and he smirked to himself in triumph. It was easy to lift his brother’s spirits, at least. When he pulled the pillow away from his face, Papyrus was leaning over the side of the bed and eyeing him suspiciously.

“Did you copulate?”

Sans sputtered and threw the pillow up, connecting with Papyrus’ skull as he felt his magic spike in embarrassment.

“no!” Papyrus tossed the pillow down again and this time Sans caught it. He turned it over in his hands before he got up and shrugged, a small grin tugging at his teeth. “just… struck some matches.”

“I don’t even know what that means!”

Grinning a little more, Sans parked the pillow behind his skull and laid back on the floor, using the side of the bed to keep his feet airborne. “good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave myself the creeps writing this chapter. But I'm glad my boys finally talked :'(
> 
> Plot is happening. There is a lot of foreshadowing up to these chapters since chapter 14!
> 
> I drew a pic for the end of chapter 12 which you can either see at [my tumblr](http://skerbb.tumblr.com/post/174166859905/requited-love-some-postcards-from-waterfall) or on [deviantArt](https://skerbb.deviantart.com/art/Undertale-Sansby-Requited-Love-746227443) :D
> 
> nsfwingdata posted page 2 of the confession scene on their tumblr too! ([here](https://nsfwingdata.tumblr.com/post/173836106063/second-page-of-a-commission-scene-for-skerbbs))  
> kaysins drew chapter 3 art of Sans and Grillby!! ([here](http://kaysins.tumblr.com/post/174234051394/spoiler-from-a-scene-in-chapter-3-of-postcards))  
> golsaileach drew a flustered Sans! ([here](https://golsaileach.tumblr.com/post/174059550292/ive-been-reading-postcards-from-waterfall-by))  
> zadiej coloured the chapter 44 art I drew and did an AMAZING JOB OMG ([NSFW here](https://zadiej.tumblr.com/post/174128606403/i-just-had-to-color-this-awesome-drawing-by))


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers go back through Waterfall, yet Sans can’t shake the feeling of being followed and watched. Undyne gives the two a lecture and Papyrus loses his chance.

The brothers stayed at the resort, Sans resting uneasily while Papyrus flicked through his phone for most of the night. When the light of the screen pulled him from sleep for the seventh time, Sans covered his brother’s phone in objection before resettling. Papyrus decided to halt his texting spree after one last message to Alphys, then decided it was better for him to rest as well.

Sans was easier to rouse in the morning than what was usual. With the promise of food, his older brother begrudgingly got out of bed and shuffled behind him to get a meager breakfast from the concession.

After breakfast and listening to Papyrus lament over the poor selection of healthy options on the menu, much to the fast food worker’s withering patience, they were soon on their way back through Hotland. Sans felt better than the previous day, although he was mostly quiet as Papyrus told him about the various shifting puzzles and conveyor belts he had to repair, thanks to an interference in the CORE.

He thought about the name and the figure, and the vitriolic black mass that he’d caught following him through the area before being scared out of his wits. Now all he felt was disgust, yet hid it from his brother as they trudged through the red dirt of Hotland towards the caves leading to Waterfall.

Grimacing awkwardly, Sans stopped when he realised Papyrus had turned to face him.

“WELL?”

Sans shifted uncomfortably. He had been lost in thoughts again and missed out on his brother’s question. Out of habit, he shrugged indifferently.

Papyrus made a noise of exasperation and turned again to continue walking, “WELL! AT ANY RATE, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE COME SO FAR IF NOT TO CHEER UP YOUR GREATEST OF BROTHERS-”

Oh. “`course, pap,” Sans replied easily; his eye lights scanned the area and he realised a little dimly that the echo flower he had struck down was bobbing pitifully in the water. He followed behind Papyrus as his brother easily constructed a bridge of bones similar to those he had conjured.

“AND FOR ALL HE IS, HE REALLY GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO CHEER ME UP! I DON’T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE, BUT YOU KNOW HOW THERE IS… AHEM, QUALITY OVER QUANTITY!”

Now Sans was just confused. Maybe he should just confess and say he hadn’t been paying attention. It was clear his brother was talking about this unknown friend of his.

“how long’ve you two known each other?” he innocently asked as his shoes clopped against the constructs below his feet. “and why’ve i never heard of `em?”

“YOU KNOW… I SIMPLY CANNOT SAY FOR SURE? I MET HIM SO LONG AGO, BUT EVEN THEN IT FELT LIKE WE WERE FRIENDS SINCE EVEN BEFORE WE MET! IT IS QUITE STRANGE, BUT I WELCOME HIS COMPANY! YOU SHOULD MEET HIM!”

Sans shrugged into his hoodie a little uneasily. That seemed reasonable, although he couldn’t shake why it felt like there was some kind of discord in the Underground due to that. Of something a little more than what Papyrus was letting on taking place, unbeknownst to him.

Suffice to say, Sans didn’t like it.

He realised he hadn’t replied as he usually would have so shrugged again when Papyrus turned to him expectantly, looking so genuinely happy at the prospect. “sounds like a plan. you got his number?”

Why couldn’t he shake this weird feeling…?

“OH, OF COURSE NOT! HE DOESN’T HAVE A CELL PHONE BUT HE’S USUALLY NOT FAR AWAY!” Papyrus beamed excitedly and pounded his chest with his fist to drive the point home. Sans’ grin tugged artificially as he looked around him. Suddenly the caverns seemed to be closing in on them.

“uh… that’s ominous,” he muttered more to himself than to the other.

“HARDLY SO! YOU’RE JUST STILL WOUND UP ABOUT THE CORE!” Papyrus retorted dismissively.

“yeah. that must be it…” Sans wasn’t entirely convinced as he followed his brother past all the whispering echo flowers, the repeat of his startled yelp amongst some snickering someone had left behind on their own way through. “can’t wait to see my best bro’s newest chum.”

Papyrus looked over his shoulder for a brief moment and Sans relaxed his shoulders despite feeling so tense. It was an unearthly feeling, forcing himself to remain calm when every fibre of his being shouted at him to stay alert. He had to trust Papyrus, right? Obviously he wouldn’t befriend anyone terrible; it was not like such a monster existed in the Underground anyway.

Anymore, that is.

Or at least, he hoped not. He worried it might’ve been a prank, but Papyrus looked genuinely happy to prove to him said friend was not a figment of his imagination. So much that his younger brother was calling out into the darkness.

“OH, BEST FRIEND!! I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE-”

“y’said they haven’t been around for awhile, right? maybe he’s not in?” Sans could only hope as he attempted to keep his tone even and neutral. Somehow he didn’t feel ready. He hoped it was just residual malaise from the previous day and not his paranoia telling him otherwise.

“I SAW HIM, SANS! HE’S NOT FAR OFF. USUALLY WHEN I STOP BY MISTER GERSON’S FOR THE MAIL, THAT’S WHEN HE DECIDES TO ‘POP’ IN! NYEH HEH HEH!”

Sans exhaled a long sigh, careful to keep it quiet as to not tip off the other about his discomfort.

Walking through Waterfall only amplified the sensation of being watched, although it was different than the eerie feeling at the CORE. It was difficult to understand, much more different than just walking by others passing through the area or going on with their day to day lives.

When he and Papyrus reached the corridor leading to Undyne’s neighbourhood, Sans yawned loudly, idly conjuring a bone to drag against the moist walls. Drawn to the sound, his brother turned to regard him and nearly jumped back in surprise.

“OH MY GOD!”

“what.”

“SANS, YOU’RE BETTER! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! BUT I WILL! BECAUSE IT IS HAPPENING BEFORE MY VERY EYES!”

Sans looked at the bone in his grasp and shrugged nonchalantly. “oh. yeah. when was it… couple, maybe a few days ago?” He struggled a little, suddenly feeling scrutinised under his brother’s watch. “cut it out, pap,” he chuckled quietly, then grunted in surprise when his brother threw his arms around him and hugged him. “jeez.”

“I’M JUST SO HAPPY! WERE YOU PRACTISING? IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WERE PRACTISING, WASN’T IT!!”

Sans couldn’t shrug in the other’s embrace, so merely grinned at him. “nope.”

Papyrus groaned in dismay, “YOU’RE TERRIBLE.”

“heh. yup.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO, THEN? WHAT WAS THE - AHEM - TIPPING POINT?”

“sparred-” Sans knew it had been the wrong thing to say immediately once the words passed his teeth. He felt Papyrus’ arms tense and his skull snapped down. He felt the unbearable excitement bear down on him from his brother’s sockets and hunched his shoulders slightly.

“WITH WHOM??”

Well, how could he hide it when Papyrus looked so happy? He wasn’t worried either, as much as the thought pestered him. Residual embarrassment nagged at Sans and he shrugged out of his brother’s arms, grinning sheepishly to himself.

“oh. y’know…”

“NO, I DO NOT!” Papyrus quipped back, then something seemed to dawn on him quite suddenly. Grabbing Sans by the shoulders, he hopped giddily in place. “OH!! OH, YOU MEAN-” Sans grinned at him a little more before glancing away again. “OH BOY!I DON’T BELIEVE IT! NO, I DO, BECAUSE IT IS WITHIN MY CAPACITY TO BELIEVE AND HOPE AND THIS IS SO VERY EXCITING! I’M EXCITED FOR YOU, SANS!”

Flinching at the overbearing volume struck right near his face, Sans grimaced as his brother’s voice echoed off the cave walls around them. “it’s just a little sparrin’, bro.”

“NO! BUT THE _IMPLICATIONS,_ MY DEAR BROTHER! SPARRING! WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND! HOW VERY IMPETUOUS! MY DATING MANUAL REFERS TO NEW COUPLES ‘GETTING PHYSICAL’, BUT NEVER HAVE I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THIS SOON!” Papyrus boomed proudly.

Sans quite literally felt heat flare up in his body at his brother’s tone; clearly both of them were thinking about _starkly_ different things when talking about ‘getting physical’.

“`PHYSICAL` AS IN EXERCISING! WHICH SPARRING IS!” his brother continued excitedly. He had let go of Sans and was now dancing on the spot. “OH SANS! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!”

“uh… thanks?” He wasn’t going to correct Papyrus. There really wasn’t any need to.

Papyrus suddenly clapped a hand over his teeth in realisation; “THAT CONCLUDES THAT MISTER GRILLBY HAS COERCED YOU INTO EXERTING ENERGY AND WORKING UP A SWEAT!”

Sans felt the heat of embarrassment flood his face at the memory: the sparring, the adrenaline, the teasing and the… following evening. He coughed a little awkwardly; Papyrus _definitely_ didn’t need to know about that. “hey, bro. can you lay off the innuendo?”

The taller skeleton stopped and turned to Sans mid-exultation; “WHAT INNUENDO?”

“what?”

“WHAT?”

Shrugging as though he didn’t understand, Sans veered around his brother, hiding the grin that wouldn’t stop tugging at his teeth with one hand. “well, in any case…” he muttered, “yeah. we tussled a bit. was kinda fun.”

“WHAT ‘SPARRED’ THE DECISION?” Papyrus inquired, quickly following him.

Sans chuckled to himself. “nice one, bro,” he sighed, allowing himself to relax after the brief teasing, “i dunno.”

“SANS!” Papyrus’ tone was exasperated again. “THIS IS A ‘BIG DEAL’!”

“ok. sure. guess i’ll let you in on a little secret. but y’gotta lean in real close for it,” Sans replied quietly, an idea forming as he winked innocently. “i don’t want any echo flowers pickin’ it up.”

Intrigued, his younger brother stopped and stooped down with his skull inclined to hear said secret and Sans leaned in and belched loudly. The resulting shove sent him careening into the wall a foot away and Sans couldn’t help but laugh loudly at the prank. Man, it had been _too long_ since he earned anything but an exasperated sigh or flatlined glower from his brother that his reaction was priceless.

“guess m’just growin’ up,” the shorter skeleton chuckled.

“AT THIS RATE? I DOUBT THAT, ESPECIALLY IF I HAVE MORE PRANKS OF THAT CALIBER TO LOOK FORWARD TO!” Papyrus shot back irritably, making a show of rubbing over the side of his skull as though to wipe the offending burp away. Then it seemed to dawn on him just what his brother meant. “OH!”

“bro, seriously. the meds alph gave me kinda… made me skittish an’ built up magic reserves beyond my control. y’know… the ‘aggression’ stage of it all. but i’m better now,” Sans rocked on his heels once with an easy shrug, “honest.”

“TRULY!?”

“blood oath.”

“WE DON’T HAVE BLOOD!” Papyrus groaned, covering his face. “AT ANY RATE, UNDYNE WILL BE MOST PLEASED THAT YOU HAVE RECOVERED. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR POST BACK AND I CAN TEND…” He trailed off, then buried his face further into his hands with a sound of dismay.

Sans eyed him warily. “what?”

“IT OCCURS TO ME THAT… WITH YOU OUT OF COMMISSION, OUR PUZZLES HAVE LIKELY FALLEN INTO DISREPAIR.”

“aw.” Sans kicked at the wall with a wink. “shame.”

“YOUR LACK OF INTUITIVENESS REGARDING PUZZLE RECALIBRATION IS ABHORRENT AND I AM EXPRESSING SUCH A DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT IN YOU FOR NEGLECTING THEM!” Papyrus barked as he strode down the corridor towards Gerson’s. “IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN DOING AT LEAST _THAT_ AFTER AMUSING YOURSELF WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND, I CANNOT FATHOM HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE FOR US TO UNFREEZE AND RECALIBRATE THE ICE PUZZLE ALONE!”

Sans huffed out a sigh of resignation, following behind his brother as Papyrus’ voice escalated into a diatribe of irritation over him not being able to fix anything. Or even try to come out to visit Undyne, or to report anything to him, or… anything, really. But then Papyrus also yo-yoed on what he said, venturing a guess that it was fine if he needed time to himself to recover, since he had been extremely worried and being pulled away by duty had left him in two places at once mentally.

It was more of the same, really. A relatively comfortable normalcy that threatened absolutely nothing but the regular brotherly bickering Sans was used to. When he would say his short piece and allow Papyrus to work himself into a conniption before he would apologise, albeit halfheartedly, and hint at getting better. Not really promise, but tried to, at least.

Old Gerson had mail for them when Papyrus went in to visit; Sans waited outside the shop to keep his eye sockets peeled for the strange watcher in the distance, but so far they hadn’t revealed themselves to him. His brother had alluded to him seeing his unknown friend earlier, which… didn’t make sense, considering that had been Papyrus’ worry this whole time, right?

Was Papyrus lying to him? Sans frowned to himself, leaning against the moist cave wall and sinking his skull into the fur-lined hood of his jacket. Apart from the distant drizzle of water far away and above, he couldn’t hear anything that was out of the ordinary. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, like Papyrus said. Maybe he had only seen his friend from afar and was genuinely worried.

Snapped out of his thoughts, Sans looked to his brother when he’d returned with a pair of sea teas. Sans took one and went over the postcards he was given to hang onto. A flyer of some sort for a bakesale beyond Hotland and another postcard whose ink was all but washed away, with a large tear down the middle of it, making the faded writing illegible in the low light. Frowning at it, Sans drank a bit more of the tea as he flipped it over. A picture of an echo flower, bisected by the tear.

Humming to himself in thought, he shoved both into his pocket and followed Papyrus down to the end of the corridor to Undyne’s.

Either Papyrus had texted her beforehand or she was normally at home at this hour, Undyne greeted them outside of her house, arms crossed over her chest and glaring the two of them down. Her shark-like mouth was set into a hard frown, single yellow eye piercing their direction akin to one of her spears. Her entire stance was rigid and tense, as though their wandering into her neighbourhood was some kind of unforgivable trespass.

“SO!!”

“UNDYNE!! LOOK WHO IS BETTER!” Papyrus stomped forward and gesticulated wildly at Sans, who remained a little tense in his thoughts. He was pulled from his train of thought when he heard his brother, who had clapped a hand onto his shoulder, making him jolt.

“I. Am. Aware.” Her voice was set on edge as she tapped a foot, the moisture of the ground sending soft squelching noises with every fall.

Sans shrugged Papyrus’ hand off his shoulder and watched her carefully, knowing precisely why she was so pent up with anger; she must’ve gotten her phone call or text from Alphys, so Sans strolled idly around in place.

“sorry.”

“SORRY?” Papyrus balked in alarm.

“You’re SORRY? After what YOU DID?” The fish lady’s tone grew louder and Sans could’ve sworn he saw pebbles fall from the ceiling above. “Do you realise how DANGEROUS that could have been!? How IRRESPONSIBLE? If someone had GOTTEN HURT? And you TOLD NO ONE!”

The older brother hunched into his hoodie for the scolding, feeling the pinch of remorse. He was fairly certain no one had been around. And in the days since, no one had been reported missing, so he had quietly stood by while the rumours of the avalanche cause quietly died off. It had been extremely irresponsible of him, she was right.

“And YOU!” Undyne rounded on Papyrus next, who looked confused as Sans hadn’t even spoke up to defend himself. She set her teeth hard, her grip on her biceps clenching as she tried to keep composed. “I don’t even know what to say! I’m EXTREMELY disappointed in you!”

Papyrus stared at her as Sans chanced a look between them. Disappointment was certainly not the expression Undyne was wearing and Papyrus was sweating nervously, keeping his spine straight despite how his body quivered. It was as though he was attempting to keep calm despite knowing he’d disappointed the person he looked up to and wanted to impress.

“what happened..?” Sans said quietly, staring at his brother.

Undyne growled and threw down her fists, every part of her steepling with muted anger. “THIS ONE!” she barked, “Listen, I understand your brother has been ill, Papyrus-”

“m’literally right here,” Sans groused, his eye sockets narrowing challengingly.

“-and I understand you both have… some issues, yeah? It’s fine. Whatever. I trusted you to patrol - not go gallivanting off whenever somethin’ else catches your fancy!”

“wait, what?”

“Papyrus, you haven’t been reporting EVERYTHING you see! Not the alien vegetation, not the tremors, the climate hikes in Hotland, NOTHING! You move FAST, but if all you are doing is talking to flowers and tending to puzzles-”

“UNDYNE, PLEASE! PUZZLES ARE THE VERY BACKBONE OF OUR SOCIETY! OUR CULTURE DEPENDS ON IT! AND IF A HUMAN-” Papyrus tried to protest.

“Alphys’ cameras are set up by the Ruins’ doors so we have a jump on anything that sneaks out! I can’t believe I’m SAYING this. Sans, I need YOU, but I can’t keep worryin’ about your brother like this!”

Sans’ skull snapped between the two of them. Papyrus was very still and he was staring ahead, every part of him crying out that something was very wrong.

“hold on-” he tried to bargain. Expelling Papyrus from his position, even if it had been a temporary measure, would _shatter_ his confidence. He wasn’t about to stand idly by while Undyne crushed that hope.

“YOU-” Undyne suddenly boomed, taking a threatening step towards Sans with her finger pointed at him. Sans’ magic automatically flickered defensively when she did so, but he managed to keep a reign in on it. “-are on thin ice as it is!”

Considering where the skeleton brothers lived, Sans had to repress a snerk. It wouldn’t have been appreciated despite his amusement at the pun.

“I need RESULTS from you, bony boy! None of this half-assed, dozing SCHTICK!”

“don’t got an ass.”

“I will PERSONALLY find an ass for you!” Undyne snarled. Suddenly Sans felt like the situation could be a lot less funny. In fact, he was certain that the fish lady wasn’t all that serious about him; he knew he did the bare minimum to get by, and his medical emergency didn’t really count against him.

It was more Papyrus he was worried about. Sans could tell she wasn’t _truly_ angry at his little brother; on more than one occasion she had divulged to him that she was actually worried for Papyrus. But the fact remained… Papyrus hadn’t reported to her? That was peculiar to say at the very least. He would try to get some information out of him later, after they rested up at home.

“Do you two UNDERSTAND how important this is?? Communication isn’t something you can withhold from me like you do to EACH OTHER!! It’s IMPORTANT! Even if it’s NOT a human, ALL of our lives are at RISK!”

The two brothers nodded, feeling all too much like scolded children instead of reprimanded sentries. Drawing a deep breath as though all the emotion had flooded out of her, Undyne turned and stalked back towards her door. “DISMISSED!”

Sans flinched when the door opened and slammed shut, sending an echoing bang throughout the caverns enough to jolt even Papyrus. He turned to his younger brother in concern, not knowing what to say. The lack of reports was so out of character, but now with this setback of Papyrus’ dream… of getting into the Royal Guard being delayed…

Well, it hurt. And Sans could see that it hurt his brother, despite how much Papyrus drew in on himself to appear like it was something to shrug off. There were the telltale signs that he was crushed, how his fingers flexed at his sides, how his skull was bowed, inclined slightly as opposed to high and proud. They were brief but they were there, just before Papyrus corrected himself.

“hey,” Sans said suddenly, strolling back to him. He set his hand on Papyrus’ shoulder and his brother seemed to snap out of it and fix him with a perplexed look, then grinned. Just like he always did. Sans stared at him, suddenly unnerved.

Papyrus pretended that a lot of things were alright. Just like then.

“A… minor setback,” his younger brother said more to himself than to him, then nodded as though agreeing with the sentiment. His back straightened and he clapped Sans on the shoulder, his grin dazzling so much Sans had a hard time convincing himself that it wasn’t real. “A minor delay that in which Undyne has deemed fit to test The Great Papyrus! Nyeh heh heh!”

Sans stared at him. It was heartbreaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, canon territory.  
> Well, Undyne did tell them both Papyrus' station was only temporary, but... damn.
> 
> Sans' belch is something my brother used to do to me all the time, heh.
> 
> I ACCIDENTALLY HIT POST INSTEAD OF SAVE WITHOUT PUBLISH so have an early chapter hahahahaaaaaa


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans meets Papyrus’ best friend. It goes as well as you think. Sans discovers who interfered with him in the lab before his accident.

Sans watched as Papyrus flitted around the house. He had taken to cleaning what mess Sans had left behind: the piled cushions on the couch, the blankets, the spilled cereal, and multiple take-out bags from Grillby’s that had piled up on the kitchen table. It was as though Sans had gone out of his way to pretend that it was Papyrus’ job, which the younger brother both lamented and appreciated. He needed the distraction.

Once the couch was cleared and adjusted to his brother’s liking, Sans took a seat in his usual spot, mostly to get out of the way than anything else as the vacuum cleaner was brought out. The loud whirring cut into his thoughts; Sans suspected it was doing the same to Papyrus.

Thinking on it, every little thing stood out now, how his brother would keep to himself, his hurts, his doubts… Sans was frowning at him as Papyrus passed the head of the vacuum under his dangling feet with not so much as a glance to him.

“bro,” Sans tried, only for his brother to avoid the attempt at conversation by rounding the couch. Flipping around to hang off the back of it, Sans stared at him. “paps…”

Still, nothing. He _knew_ this was eating at him but Papyrus was refusing to talk.

 _“papyrus!”_ Sans suddenly shouted over the drone of the suction. Papyrus flinched and eyed him in surprise, then stooped to turn off the appliance with an innocent, puzzled look. “man. dude. bro. _c’mon.”_

“WHAT?” Evasive. Sans’ eye sockets narrowed challengingly. “YOU’VE MADE AN OUTRIGHT MESS WHILE I WAS GONE, SANS. I NEED TO CLEA-”

“we need to talk about what just happened, papyrus,” the older skeleton said very abruptly. Papyrus handled the vacuum’s pole like a polearm, shouldering it uneasily. “and don’t pull the ‘i don’t wanna’ schtick - that’s my line. i know how much this’s botherin’ you.”

Papyrus shuffled a little before glancing away, his phalanges nervously tapping on the pole.

“you’re overthinkin’ this,” Sans continued; at the back of his mind he realised how hypocritical he was being. “you’re the great papyrus, after all. you just gotta prove yourself. tell me what happened? y’know i don’t snitch.”

His brother remained quiet for awhile as Sans stared him down. Then the older brother sighed and hung over the back of the couch. “it’s not like you.” Papyrus snapped his skull back to regard the other, whom had his eye lights downcast. “when did we get to be like this, man? have we always been this way..? is undyne right?”

“MY ERRORS-” Papyrus said haltingly. He stopped, then sighed heavily, shuffling the vacuum’s pole in his grasp. “-I… DIDN’T MEAN…”

It was difficult for him to speak about mistakes and slip-ups. It was part of his glowing charisma, his confidence that Sans admired. He was stubborn in his own way, much like Sans himself. The older skeleton’s grin tugged awkwardly and he gave the side of his jaw a brief scratch.

“how’s it you can get me to talk, but when _i_ try…” He let the thought end there and saw Papyrus’ shoulders slump in guilt. It hurt him to needle his brother like this, when all he wanted was Papyrus to be happy. To be safe. To have all his dreams realised so everyone would see how great a person he really was.

“maybe i haven’t been the best role model, heh.”

“Brother,” Papyrus’ voice was low and he pushed aside the vacuum to join Sans on the couch. “You didn’t do anything-”

“i know.”

“You _know_ that’s not what I mean!” the younger of the two shot back immediately. He bent his legs close to him and held his arms around his knees, glaring at the television set. “What I did? I did of my own volition! And if that… contributed to a risk in the Underground… then Undyne is right. Perhaps I’m not yet cut out for the Royal Guard. It means I have… time to improve! Time to grow as a person! People will see!”

Sans slid back down and leaned against his brother. “you’re dodging.”

“A BAD HABIT I MOST LIKELY PICKED UP FROM YOU,” Papyrus retorted, recovering from his sombre tone.

Sans snickered quietly. “not gonna tell me, are ya?”

Papyrus tilted his skull so it fell against Sans’ with a soft clack. “Promise not to be angry?”

“have you honestly ever seen me angry?”

“Honestly and truly? There have been moments. A long, long time ago.” Sans knew to what Papyrus was referencing and nodded slightly; angry with his recovery after the CORE accident. Angry with the people in New Home who found out - Sans shook those thoughts from his head. This was about _Papyrus._

“we gotta talk about this. no holdin’ out secrets anymore, pap.”

“That street goes both ways, dear brother,” Papyrus lightly admonished, then sighed. “Well… alright.” He was fidgeting, his phalanges clacking together as he picked between the joints. It was several moments before he sighed again and muttered quietly, almost under his breath, “Perhaps in my hubris, I lost sight of my true goal. To keep the Underground safe.”

“uh. y’might wanna rewind a bit.”

“My friend… he is a very insightful fellow! Full of grand advisories and precautions. Several times, he’s been able to tell me things as though he is able to see the future. I feel like I can trust him with my whole heart and all of my prized secrets!”

Sans remained quiet as he listened, his grin tugging down in an uneasy frown. Surely that couldn’t be true..?

“His predictions as of late have been… rather rudimentary. Trite. Vague! Before, they had been extremely detailed, as though he knew things explicitly! With you, with the earthquakes, the floods… Even when you ignited your bedamned box!”

That gave Sans a start. He suddenly felt very cold as his mind drifted to his half-aware state in his workshop. He had all but forgotten it, apart from the rebound itself. He stayed silent as Papyrus continued, feeling a flare of trepidation building up inside of him.

“Lately it seems that he doesn’t know what will happen next… as though things are either not going to a ‘script’, as he called it. Or, somehow? I thought? Perhaps… he had something to do with the strange goings-on lately.” Papyrus paused again, his fidgeting increasing so much that Sans reached over and grabbed his forearm to stop him. “He was very adamant he had nothing to do with your rebound. So much that I feared he had… something to do with it. So I confronted him.”

Sans unconsciously clenched his grip on his brother’s forearm, so tightly that Papyrus hissed in pain. Jolted out of the sudden flare of anger, the older brother quickly withdrew his hand away, stuffing both into his hoodie’s pockets as he slouched further against the cushions.

“i’m listening.”

“He is adamant that he had nothing to do with it. He merely detected concentrated levels of magic and went to investigate! He found you! If not for him, you would have… I would not have…” Papyrus said quickly, sensing his brother’s tense mood. “I believe I may have offended him! Which is why he stayed away! I was merely crossing every possibility off the list! Of course there was no way he could have, and yet-”

“you got your suspicions. i understand,” Sans replied tersely; normally Papyrus’ exposition wouldn’t have bothered him, but he was getting impatient, all things considered. “then what?”

“I went looking for him. You know, he is very dear to me-” _Dear enough not to mention to me,_ Sans thought suspiciously, but remained quiet, “-so I… I might have taken… a few breaks. A few… indiscretions. I had to apologise! I don’t very well wish to have such a grand friendship shattered over my miscalculations! So… perhaps… the Great Papyrus has been… less than mediocre lately. Because of… a great worry instead.”

Sans watched Papyrus’ hands fidget against themselves again and drew in a slow breath. It was a lot to take in. Papyrus wasn’t one to admit his mistakes; but on the other hand, it was clear that this had been eating at him. With a grunt, Sans knocked their skulls together with a bit of force, enough for tears to prick at Papyrus’ sockets in pain with a startled exclamation.

“we’re such boneheads,” Sans groused quietly. “can’t even talk to each other like a normal family.”

Papyrus wasn’t sure how to take that but understood Sans’ irritation. Of course it didn’t help that Sans was growing out of the aggression stage of puberty, as Alphys had advised him, but he understood. He released a sigh of his own and knocked his skull against Sans’, a little more gently.

“Are we really that terrible?”

“undyne seems to think so.” Sans gave a halfhearted shrug as thoughts tumbled around in his head, focusing on the minute pain the headbutt had caused him. “y’know, i still can’t really remember the immediate events leadin’ up to the ignition.”

“Alphys has told me as much,” Papyrus agreed quietly.

“core magic has a stringent flow of its own,” Sans muttered as though trying to piece it together himself. “hard and fast.”

“I know what ‘stringent’ means, brother,” the other replied witheringly.

“think i remember somethin’.” Sans rubbed at his skull and thought about it. The events leading up to the ignition were hazy, almost forgotten. Almost _buried,_ as though it was something to be hidden away.

CORE magic was a muted hue, nearly matching his own, yet more violet than cyan. It was almost periwinkle in cast. When it flowed through his body, it converted through his flux and left him with his own signature. And it burned through every channel of his body.

But periwinkle or cyan weren’t the colours that he remembered dealing with. Sans remembered a burn of white and a flash of bright chartreuse, akin to the foliage in New Home, where thousands of golden flowers popped out of the ground in large clumps. He rubbed at the bridge of bone between his sockets with a quiet sigh of frustration. It still didn’t make sense and nothing new was coming to light.

“actually, maybe i don’t,” he finally said. “just a flash and gettin’ knocked out, i guess.” Did he remember anything? No, not really. Did he remember a visitor of some kind?

Sans thought hard on that, letting his eye sockets drift shut. Perhaps there _had_ been someone there. Someone that caught him off guard. Or maybe it was because he had no logical answer other than ‘I messed up on my formula’ that Sans wasn’t willing to accept, that he was so drawn to the prospect of another lead.

He sighed and rubbed his brother’s skull against his own with a dejected sigh. “i guess i owe your friend some kinda thanks,” he murmured quietly, while his thoughts added: _even if it feels suspicious._ Maybe if he met this elusive friend, he would remember. Especially if said friend was there when the rebound happened. And _especially_ if Papyrus had gone out of his way to apologise on his own, as well.

Papyrus hummed quietly in agreement but didn’t reply.

“you’ll be ok, `lil bro,” Sans nudged him with his skull again. “i dunno if you’ve noticed, but you’re a good kid. you’ll get another chance. undyne might be pissed, but it’s only `cause she really cares. you know that.”

Papyrus nodded silently and curled his arm around his brother’s shoulders to hold him close. Sans patted his skull for comfort and exhaled, his mind going over what he’d been told. So, Papyrus had been worried after his friend, worried after _him,_ which is why he dropped everything… for closure? No, more like he was doing an investigation of his own, because his brother didn’t believe it was a mere accident. He supposed in a way that it made sense, but things still didn’t add up.

After awhile of silently consoling each other, Papyrus eventually got back up to resume cleaning. Sans watched him go around, finish up vacuuming, wiped down the television, the bannister, gathered trash and put it out back to be collected later. After awhile, Sans resorted to going over things in his mind, slouched on the couch in a more or less comfortable position with his sockets closed. He drifted between the world of sleep and contemplation, until a nagging thought came to him.

His notebook. With his schematics.

They had been locked up.

But he had been referencing them while he worked. He was sure of it!

Sockets snapping open, Sans felt a cold unease settle over him.

Someone had interfered. Someone had _directly_ interfered with him and he couldn’t recollect why. Bunching his hands in his pockets, he didn’t even wait to see what Papyrus wanted to ask him before he quickly warped away from the living room and into the basement.

It still reeked of CORE magic. Normally he wasn’t affected by it, but Sans covered his nasal cavity and mouth as he felt the residual burn of memory echo in his soul. Intent to sabotage left its mark here, smudged against the walls and tiles in unseen traces.

Sans suddenly felt ill. Did someone hate him so much to do this? No monsters stood out as to who would have any qualms with him - a few irritations for harmless jokes, pranks… they had never gone wrong.

But now?

He felt under threat.

Something in his bones was prickling with panic. Someone had wanted to harm him, but not enough to simply lash out themselves. This was calculated. Opportunistic. Made to look like an accident. A shudder went through his body as he picked up subtle hints of _malintent._ It matched the creeping, unfriendly feeling that lingered in Waterfall, looming in the distance.

He should meet this _friend_ of Papyrus’.

It didn’t add up.

Why else would said friend be there?

Papyrus had been perplexed over Sans’ gradual dip in mood. He could tell that there was something different; perhaps his brother didn’t believe him after all about his motivations. Or maybe the gravity of his expulsion as unofficial honorary sentry had hit Sans more than he initially thought? He barely went out apart from his sentry duties. No reports of humans. Despite their efforts to recalibrate their puzzles going over swimmingly, no one had seen anything out of the ordinary.

But Sans was keeping near to him, not even going to his favourite restaurant. Keeping from his boyfriend. As though he didn’t trust him, suddenly.

Sans had asked to meet his friend. He had asked several times over the next few days. Papyrus thought it odd, but with Sans’ insistence came the overbearing feeling of… protection. Of Sans’ judgmental nature eking something out, as though suspicious of what he had told him.

It took some coercion for Sans to finally be at ease. It appeared that an accumulation of energy had built up in his brother over the past few days. It had been there before, something Papyrus had missed the first time through. He supposed that was why Sans had resorted to sparring with the bartender while he was away. He, of course, offered to help Sans expend the build-up but was met with rejection.

Sans assured him that he was fine. They were hiding from each other again, of this Papyrus knew for certain. He huffed a courage-gathering breath as he travelled through Waterfall, his brother on his heels. He was walking with purpose. Sans was ready, protective and alert, despite every effort he took to hide it from his brother.

“HELLO!” Papyrus called into the darkness for the fifth time. He knew that his voice carried well and long into the marsh, and knew that his friend would be lingering nearby, even if he had offended him in some way. He had to apologise when he introduced Sans to him. It was only right, fair and polite! “COME OUT, OH FRIEND OF MINE?”

“say,” his brother suddenly spoke up, his voice assuming that New Home drawl he insisted upon when he was trying to act carefree. “what’s this guy’s name anyway?”

Papyrus stopped when he caught a flash of gold out of the corner of his socket. Turning on a sharp corner, he darted out between bulrushes and high grasses, waving his arms enthusiastically. “THERE! THERE!”

Sans swore in surprise and was following him shortly after. Papyrus never had to worry that he would stray far; as in their youth, Sans always kept close to him even if Papyrus was sure he was somewhere else. Which was why when Sans suddenly left him alone for some time periods, he met up with his friend. He supposed that was, in a way, how he came to be such close friends and now lovers with the bartender?

Then - he was in view! He could see him! Papyrus laughed in triumph and sprinted forward, not even short of breath by the time he caught up to the gold glint now within his sight.

Sans was huffing behind him. Really, if the lazybones did more to exercise, then Papyrus felt he wouldn’t have to scold him so much. But there they were, Papyrus grinning down at the little golden flower with a peculiar look on his face.

He seemed… startled?

Why?

“HELLO! BEFORE YOU RUN AWAY, PLEASE, FLOWERY-” Papyrus started, just as the little golden flower bobbed in place and stretched out on his stem, small eyes now widened at the extra visitor. “PLEASE, I WOULD LIKE TO… APOLOGISE-”

Papyrus felt something prick up his spine. There was a high pitched noise suddenly, and his brother was struggling to catch his breath. He turned to reprimand Sans and flinched back, suddenly face-to-face with something he’d never seen before.

Of Sans, sockets pitch save for the live magic flickering in his left eye, of it spilling forth and restlessly bounding around him. The loudest whine barely above register rumbled overhead of him as clear and bright energy built up, gathering from all around him as the smaller skeleton gasped under the effort.

“SANS?” Oh dear. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go at all!

Flowery had been right!

Sans _didn’t_ like him, after all!

“back. away. pap..yrus…” Sans huffed as sweat trickled down the sides of his skull. He appeared to be fighting something inside and his mouth no longer hid any pretend smile. He was all seriousness now, his magic feeding the intent to protect, to expel a threat away.

“YOU’RE BEING INCREDIBLY RUDE! STOP THA…” Papyrus trailed off when the energy above his brother accumulated into a dense white figure, a looming, powerful construct. It was unstable yet veered, hovering in place as energy and magic fed into its sharp gaping maw, a singularity of blinding light building and humming with hot crackling magic.

It reeked. He knew the smell well. Papyrus stiffened and stepped in front of Sans with his arms outreached, watching how Sans’ rib cage rose and fell with the effort of conjuring the massive attack. His eye lights had faded from his sockets and he had his good arm thrust out, phalanges trembling under heavy strain.

 _“move, papyrus-”_ Sans growled lowly, a hiss to his words as they filled the crackling air around him like static. _“you’re… in danger-”_

“I’M NOT! _WE’RE_ NOT! IT’S FINE, SEE?? THIS IS THE FRIEND I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT! CALM DOWN! WHY ARE YOU SO-”

 _“move!”_ Sans seethed, his flux whipping around him enough to cut the tall grass and typha reeds around him. There was a building pressure in the air as he stepped forward once, his unseen gaze trained behind Papyrus. The shoe falling to the ground drew dirt up around his foot, as though an earth-sundering weight had dropped and threatened to crack a chasm below.

Before he had a chance to try and placate his brother, Papyrus felt the sudden eddy of bone constructs rise up from the marsh’s ground, tearing upwards in a havoc of white and blue. They flew by him at an alarming rate, grazing him just barely and he flinched as the bones connected with the plant matter behind him with a sickening _crunch._

Frustrated, Sans yelled, his tone hollow and panicked as he rose his left arm into the air. The mass of energy in the large hovering attack’s fanged mouth strengthened when he clenched his fist, then flung it towards him.

Papyrus ducked out of the way in time, his soul throttling in his rib cage. He’d never seen Sans in such a state, he was stunned at the very notion of his brother having such power, when all this time they both had thought his damage output to be negligible. Panicked himself, the taller skeleton threw a look over his shoulder, his eye sockets wide with fright that the unknown attack had connected with his friend-

Only for the area that Flowery had been in to be completely empty, save for a torn petal and a few sparse leaves. The ground was scorched in a large tunnel of burning magic and Papyrus felt his soul plummet in dread, his breath caught in terror.

“WHAT…”

Sans was suddenly gasping as the high pitched whine cut off and when his brother turned back to him, Papyrus’ eye sockets were brimming with tears.

“HOW COULD YOU!!” he said shrilly, in complete utter disbelief. “HOW COULD YOU - HE WAS… HE WAS MY FRIEND!”

Sans’ eye sockets were still devoid of light and he was panting heavily, sweat streaking down his skull and neck as his breaths shook him. There was the burn of CORE magic in the air and his grin was tight as Papyrus shakily approached on his knees to the spot where his friend had been.

Confused, scared… And it was all his fault. Papyrus felt the sting of responsibility more then than he had ever felt in his entire life and he pressed his hands into the dirt, gathering up what was left of the golden flower before turning abruptly to regard his brother.

> **[ SANS 1 ATK 1 DEF  
>  ***** █▓▒¦s▓ kar█a ▒urn▒▒▒** **]**
> 
> **[ * 15 HP ]**
> 
> **[ * 1 LV 0 EXP ]**

It did little to alleviate his worry, but if Flowery hadn’t been dusted then, that was something at least. Especially if Sans hadn’t earned any EXecution Points. He noted the peculiar shudder that passed through his brother’s body as the construct above him finally dispelled, motes of burnt magic wafting closer to him with every step Sans took towards him.

“papyrus.” The low growl caught him off guard. Why was Sans so angry? Why did he attack? Any questions that he had wilted when his brother shakily stooped to pick something up, his expression dark. Then he took something out of his pocket and held it out for Papyrus to take.

A leaf. Wilted, shredded and crisp, but Papyrus knew it immediately. He opened his mouth as though to say something but Sans’ movement interrupted him, thrusting out his left hand that concealed that which he had picked up.

Hastily, he held out his own hand expectantly and something dropped. Sans didn’t even seem to care. All he felt was unfathomable rage alongside the sting of malintent that ebbed off his brother like waves of heat.

When another leaf hit his gloved hand, Sans exhaled hotly. “thought you were on my side,” he muttered quietly, his voice sounding raw.

Papyrus only registered what he meant with the identical leaves in his hands before his skull snapped up in shock, the urge to explain himself finally too powerful to resist.

But Sans was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his brother disappears, Papyrus tears through Waterfall searching for him, meeting up with Flowey who warns him about where Sans has been. Sans lands in a familiar place, disorientated and exhausted.

“PLEASE!” Papyrus’ voice echoed down the caves as his feet carried him through the marsh. He knew that Sans likely wouldn’t have gone far, although to be honest, he wasn’t sure about his brother’s intent anymore. There had been _real_ fear behind the other’s demeanour, true Fight or Flight responses kicking in when he’d never seen it displayed before.

Or rather, at least not before the incident at the CORE, when Sans chose to Flee instead of Fight.

Papyrus huffed harsh breaths as he called his brother’s name again and again, the echoes from the flowers in Waterfall battling the silence in mocking repeat.

_‘Sa(S(ans)an(ns)s!! Br(broth(brother(ther(er)er!’_

“PLEASE TELL ME YOU’VE SEEN HIM,” the skeleton gasped in front of a small tear-shaped monster near the corridor. They looked at him with glossy eyes and shifted their body to the side, akin to a head tilt. “THANK YOU ANYWAY--SANS!? COME BACK!!”

Papyrus could say that he didn’t think he’d been so confused in his life. He felt the hurt in Sans’ voice when he was accused of not being on his side; had those two met before? Was that why Sans was so distrustful of Flowery right from the start? Were they enemies?

That couldn’t be right.

Not unless his friend was saying any mistruths.

But Sans… and his formula…

Papyrus growled in frustration. These weren’t the kinds of thoughts he should be entertaining right now! He had to make things right, by all costs! He clenched the two leaves in his hand, his soul sinking with the thought that… it was very possible that Flowery had something to do with it after all. Being lied to… It was nothing new, but the tiny golden flower had no reason to, he thought. He really believed them to be good; they had so many good times together, shared secrets, he was urged by him, his positivity had been a grounding and cementing point in their good relationship.

Even if Flowery wasn’t; there was time to apologise, to explain his actions and to atone for his misbehaviour. Papyrus always thought that he was so lucky to have such a friend, but now grew to worry. The notch in his arm stung only a little from Sans’ haphazard attacks, but he was worried for Flowery as well. After all, he wasn’t sure of how much health the small flower had, despite the foliage left behind when he ran away.

Groaning in exhaustion, Papyrus stopped to catch his breath. He had been running for what seemed like hours without stopping, combing over Waterfall for any sign of his brother. He even went to the hidden out-of-reach area with a bench and an echo flower that he’d caught Sans in several times before.

But Sans was not there.

He was fairly worn out; perhaps if he just went straight back home, he’d run into Sans and explain everything from the start. This time no holding back anything, and-

“Papyrus!”

The skeleton was jolted out of his thoughts at the familiar voice and he let out a gasp of surprise at the sight of his friend. A petal torn and a small cut against his stem, but otherwise he looked relatively unharmed! Papyrus let out a sigh of relief and slunk down to the ground so he was at better eye level with the flower.

“Flowery - oh look at you!” Papyrus’ voice broke despite himself and he reached out, magic humming through his bones in preparation to heal. “I… I’m so sorry, please. Sans is… he is very aggressive and excitable lately, and I haven’t been around, and-”

The flower bobbed once on his stem before peering up at the skeleton with large eyes. “He’s… in the aggression stage! That’s no worry - ow - wowie, Papyrus. I don’t even know what to say!” His voice was small, lingering on a whisper as - for once - Papyrus was allowed to heal him. Not very many points were lost, but since the skeleton was unable to Check him, he couldn’t say for sure how hurt he was in the first place.

“You… Friend, I must ask again. Please don’t be angry with me! I am merely… scratching things off the list, as a precaution! You understand, correct?”

“Of course!”

“You… really had nothing to do with my brother’s accident?” Papyrus’ voice felt tight in his nonexistent throat as he pushed the healing magic out, filling the gashed stem and missing petal with warm green flux that healed almost instantly. “He… I believe he thinks that he saw you. Which is… which is why he felt threatened, you see-”

“Papyrus, I’m not lyin’!” the flower sighed softly. His little beady eyes wavered slightly as though tears were threatening to fall. “I found him after the rebound and told you as soon as I could!”

“Yes, but, I don’t understand - why were you there in the first place?”

“Advice!” Flowery piped up suddenly. He looked a lot better when Papyrus finally withdrew his hand, the very image of a pristine flower in its full glory. “I noticed something very interesting and I wanted to ask him if he was ok!”

“Oh!” Papyrus was caught off guard and drew himself upwards, unable to help himself. “What do you mean!? What happened!?”

Flowery bobbed on his stem again, leafy arms extended up in a pleading gesture. “He was close to the Barrier! I was checking up on him! It’s very serious!”

Papyrus clapped both of his hands over his teeth in shock. “THE BARRIER!?!”

* * *

When Sans used a shortcut, he didn’t have a stopping point in mind until he stumbled into a wall covered in pots and pans. Startled, he immediately warped away again, aiming for _outside._ No one needed to see him like this, he thought blearily. As soon as his feet fell into crunchy snow, Sans knew he had landed somewhere in town. His soul burned as he stumbled into the wall of the nearest building and slid down its surface, his breaths harsh.

His soul hurt, yet it wasn’t only due to the burn. Several thoughts and self-deprecating chastisements coursed through his mind. How stupid he was, what he perceived Papyrus to have done…

He felt so lost, so betrayed that every part of him hurt. It was coupled with the growing panic inside, of the pale face that haunted his dreams, that caused him to scream for months on end, Sans covered his skull with his shaky hands, trying to come to grips with reality.

That… couldn’t have been it.

It was a goddamn _flower!_

But he remembered it; a telltale voice, lingering at the edge of his subconscious, the tone, cadence and singsongy way it would test him. Try to get a rise out of him. Then beckon him when everyone was gone-

Sans huffed out a few breaths, trying to calm himself. This was insane. He had never met that flower… monster? before. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling of it being a very serious threat. And Papyrus-

_Papyrus._

God, what a fool. He knew his brother better than that, didn’t he? He didn’t understand, and yet couldn’t help the stabbing pain that filtered through his worries, punctuating every fear he had. That someone had manipulated his brother, led him astray, coerced him to _harm-_

He knew it. Sans just _knew it._ From the moment he found the leaf discarded in the trash behind the house, to the same small coloured mark on the wall in the basement workshop. The presence of vines that had tried to harm them during Sans and Grillby’s ferry through Waterfall suddenly felt suffocating. His notes being trifled with, being threatened, and-

_“...Sans?”_

The skeleton started at the familiar tone. Instead of looking up, he squeezed his eye sockets closed and drew on his reserves to shortcut away again.

No one could see him like this. He had to calm down.

He whimpered when the shortcut failed, his magic fettering uselessly. Right. The burn. The skeleton hunched over himself and clutched at his sternum to rub away the ache and he immediately felt warm hands on him.

_“...What’s happened to you?”_

Sans couldn’t tell them. Not yet. “need a drink,” he admitted a little quietly, the fray of his magic sending hot pinpricks of pain throughout his body.

 _“You require food and not alcohol,”_ the other reprimanded him quietly. He took Sans’ hand in his own and the skeleton hissed softly with the introduction of healing magic. Had he… hurt himself? When he crashed into the wall of crockery… that must have been in a kitchen.

Shit.

Admittedly things were a little hazy and Sans gradually came to recognise who the other was with better clarity than before. The fact that Grillby’s face was normally obscured did little to help his bearings when Sans finally looked at him. His vision was askew and trying to focus on the fire monster only made the vertigo worse. He groaned softly and lifted a shaky hand to his face to try and settle his vision. He knew he shouldn’t have, since Grillby was now tugging at his shoulders insistently, likely with worry.

Where had he even landed..?

Blearily he looked around, realising he was near the back exit of Grillby’s restaurant. Right. That must’ve been all the pots and pans. He laughed a little bitterly with another shake and laid his hand on the other’s forearm.

“easy there, firecracker.” The fire monster’s aura snapped and Sans squinted ahead of him. “ok, i can eat.”

_“Can you stand? What happened?”_

“fried-day,” Sans chuckled lightly to himself. After the initial shock, he felt exhausted. Light. Heavy. Drawn thin. He just wanted to lie down. Maybe it was a good thing Grillby found him; at least he wouldn’t be found passed out in the snow.

Grillby hummed softly in concern and stooped to hoist Sans with an arm over his shoulders so he could walk. The other swayed as he was made to move and stumbled a little.

“careful, righty’s comin’ loose,” the skeleton muttered softly and leaned against Grillby. The other ignored the comment, but now was worried for an entirely different reason.

 _“...Not allowing you to leave until I get something into you,”_ the fire monster admonished as they passed the threshold of the fire exit. Sans scoffed quietly at what he perceived to be innuendo and Grillby ignored the mumbled dirty joke, concerned with how dazed he had found Sans.

With a little trouble, Grillby managed to get Sans into the relatively empty bar. Dizzy was at her seat passed out and Punk was engaged in conversation with Red, paying the couple little mind as Grillby led the unsteady skeleton into the kitchen.

 _“What happened?”_ he tried again, giving Sans another light shake. The skeleton groaned in protest and slid down the wall he was next to, trying to get his bearings.

“`tacked,” he muttered indifferently. “my fuckin’ bro, man. fuck.”

 _“Your… brother attacked you?”_ Grillby repeated, aghast.

Sans drew himself up, grabbing at the fire monster’s arm to help balance himself. “what? no. no way, man. dude. friend, _buddy._ no. _i_ did.” Grillby watched as Sans looked around him a little in confusion. “goddamn _blasted_ the little shit, but…”

 _“You aren’t making a great deal of sense, Sans. Please. Start from the beginning!”_ Grillby crackled nervously. He led the other to a stool and thought better of it. Since Sans was having difficulty to stand, it was easier to just help him sit on the floor. _“You attacked Papyrus?”_

“what? _no,”_ Sans groaned, slowly shaking his head. “you’re not listenin’.”

Grillby’s flames plumed in agitation before he calmed himself, the reddening colour of his fire shifting back to normal hues. _“I’m listening.”_

It was a while longer before Sans finally spoke up, first grumbling sourly to himself until Grillby could make out his words. “y’know… my bad nights… that unknown monster attackin’ me. attackin’ the bro. just… fuckin’ everything up. i saw it. him. whatever. thing is, i saw it, you know… when i lit the box. freaked me out. they distracted me. all this time, i thought i messed up my schematic, my form.. formula,” Sans paused with a heavy sigh and tilted his skull back so it hit the wall with an audible _thunk._ “that lil’ shit changed it after, i think. i’m sure.”

Grillby watched the other’s breathing; at least _that_ was fine. It wasn’t the shallowed, harsh breathing he had witnessed after the rebound, so he gently gave Sans’ shoulder a reassuring pat and got up to fetch something quick for the other to eat. When he came back to him, eyes glancing over the skeleton’s body slumped against the wall, Grillby snapped his fingers to rouse him.

“thought pap was hidin’ him `cause he knew. he knew i’d be mad, `cause that’s his buddy. his _only_ buddy, man,” the skeleton continued bitterly as though there had not been a few minutes’ pause. There was heartbreak in his tone and he stared listlessly at the proffered bun the fire monster held out to him. “didja know, after all this time, the kid’s still got no friends here?”

Grillby didn’t reply, but he felt his soul sink a little in guilt. He supposed he had noticed the way Papyrus went out of his way to invite others along to join him, yet no one took him up on his offers. There was just _something_ that pushed everyone away from Papyrus.

“m’a bad parent,” Sans added softly, eyeing the bread. He reached for it and missed, then he laughed at himself, the sound broken. Grillby helped tear off a piece of it and offered it to Sans’ mouth, distraught with the lack of motor control. “maybe i shoulda listened.”

 _“It’s not up to you to be the parent, just because you are the eldest,”_ Grillby said thoughtfully. _“Although I cannot attest to Papyrus’ feelings on this, since I imagine… after attacking, you… used a shortcut?”_ With Sans’ limpid nod, Grillby sighed. _“Why did you not speak with him?”_

“was pifssed,” the skeleton replied after another long pause. He had resorted to chewing, something Grillby found peculiar, since he hadn’t witnessed it before. It reminded him of something the shop bunny said and he felt unease with the notion he was building in his mind.

_“And now that you have… expended a lot of energy..?”_

“was kinda hopin’ for a nap, to be honest.”

 _“Does Papyrus know where you are?”_ Grillby asked suddenly and Sans gave him a blank look. Well, as blank as a skeleton with a permanent grin could achieve. _“Of course not,”_ he sighed in resignation. _“You should have stayed by him. He is likely searching for you, worried sick.”_

“y’sound like `im,” Sans sighed softly. The fire monster hummed discontentedly and gave the other another slight shake. “m’up, yo.”

_“Eat more.”_

“yessir.” Even if it was said facetiously, Grillby’s face burned several degrees hotter. He watched intently as Sans ate another piece, then another, until the entire bun was consumed.

 _“Do you have your cell phone..?”_ the fire monster asked quickly. With the other’s perplexed look, Grillby sighed harshly and repeated himself.

The skeleton slipped his hands into his pockets and outturned them. A few crunched up leaves and a bursted ketchup packet came out, but no cell phone. Grillby’s shoulders slouched when he realised this was one of the many times when no, Sans did not think to have his cell phone on him. He must really try and drill the importance into that bony head of his.

 _“Do you… honestly believe that your brother would do something like that intentionally?”_ Grillby suddenly asked, standing up again so he could fetch something else for Sans to eat. The skeleton was starting to doze, but jolted out of it with his tone of voice.

“he… knows a lot more than he lets on, actually,” Sans muttered. “it’s hard to say, `specially when he’s so… so _stubborn_ all the time.”

 _“Says the kettle,”_ Grillby added, unable to hide his smirk. When Sans chuckled, the fire monster looked over to him in concern. _“You should speak with him.”_

“i know. i need a min, though.”

_“You need to eat more. Until you are more lucid and can collect your thoughts. Then you will call Papyrus, as I will do now, to advise him that you are safe-”_

“man, y’don’t gotta…”

 _“Sans, I do believe he has every right to know that you are safe and not… unconscious in the snow, someplace,”_ Grillby crackled irritably.

Sans shifted where he sat, avoiding the other’s look. When the fire monster knelt down again to give him an assortment of nuts and crackers on a plate and even a small bowl of cheese, the skeleton was able to more easily feed himself.

“i gotcha,” he muttered quietly. “thanks, g.”

Grillby watched as the skeleton dozed between bites. He restlessly roasted a few of the remaining chestnuts between his fingers and stroked over the other’s skull, fighting with himself internally that he had to leave this bonehead in order to call Papyrus.

“m’ok,” Sans murmured quietly, unable to keep his sockets open any longer. Grillby bit the side of his mouth with his fangs in worry, pushing another healing pulse through to the skeleton, who gasped softly in surprise. “m’not gonna fall apart, i swear.”

The fire monster sighed and settled his hand over the other’s chest, flattening out his palm against his sternum to concentrate his healing there. Now closer, he caught the scent on Sans immediately, of something charred. A reckless edge of worry swarmed through him at what that meant. He felt Sans’ rib cage heave gently under his touch and the other eyed him from one socket, his smile more of a grimace as a light flickered under his hand.

 _“Stubborn,”_ Grillby muttered accusingly.

“and i thought you weren’t interested in compositions for awhile,” the skeleton retorted. Grillby repressed the urge to roll his eyes at the veiled joke referencing the traits of the soul that individuals were comprised of. Then Sans sighed, then let out another soft gasp with the subtle nudge against his soul. “what’re you doin’..?”

Grillby pushed his hand a little more firmly against his rib cage, feeding magic through bones and directly to the light hidden behind his clothes. _“...Constructing a Well.”_ He said it so plainly that Sans gave him an odd look, as though the notion was so foreign to him that he didn’t understand. _“You are… burned.”_

“burned.” No, Sans didn’t understand after all.

 _“...Know something of them,”_ Grillby replied quietly, watching as Sans’ breaths pushed against his palm, drinking in the offered magic like a small trickling stream. _“...It’s happened before.”_

“you’re jus’ healin’ me,” the skeleton murmured, then inhaled deeply with another thrum of magic. “feels nice though.”

 _“You… said you would take care of yourself,”_ Grillby reminded him quietly, feeling the sting of worry when Sans slumped further against the wall. _“...Promised, even.”_

Sans nodded slightly, both sockets closed now. “i panicked.” His voice was bare and a little strained. “m’sorry.”

The fire monster sighed softly and leaned forward to wrap his free arm around the other, pressing the skeleton’s body against him in a tight hug. _“Bonehead,”_ he whispered softly, and Sans couldn’t help the tired laugh that escaped him. _“I’m calling your brother after this, and you will speak to each other like civilised adults.”_

The other scoffed and rose one hand to grasp at Grillby’s shirt, a quiet hum leaving him as the pulse of warm magic flooded into his soul. “ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... The Barrier...
> 
> Grillby certainly has his hands full with Sans lately. :| With Flowey settling more into the plot, I want to remind everyone a good ending is the goal here. q_q ~~I'm so nervous, lol.~~
> 
> I know things seem to be all over in this chapter, I kind of struggled with it. I also struggled heavily for the next one (you'll know why next week dkdsjfhkg...) and it took me 3-4 weeks to write :V but I'm miraculously past it. There are a few plot points being touched on here.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby gets the brothers together for a discussion.

Grillby was uneasy when he had to leave Sans behind in the kitchen to utilise the phone behind the bar. While Dizzy appeared to have left, there was a pile of coins that signified her sister had come by. A little weakened by healing Sans, he rested by the register to compose himself, passing his hand through his flames in a self-soothing gesture.

Directly healing the soul took a lot out of a monster, especially one that wasn’t mastered in the art. It was a more concentrated form of healing, affected the souls of both monsters and was amplified by emotion - namely love. He had poured everything into it, enough for Sans to recover and regain clarity before he had drifted off to sleep.

Grillby felt worn out but took up his phone and dialled Papyrus’ number, rubbing under his glasses until the other side picked up. _“...Pa-”_

“HELLO, THIS IS - _HAH_ \- THE GREAT PAPYRUS - _HAH_ \- SORRY, I CAN’T… I CAN’T TALK NOW, I’M LOOKING FOR MY BROTH… BROTHER!” Click.

Caught off guard, Grillby’s flames crackled in bemusement as he glanced to the receiver. With a sigh, he dialled the skeleton again.

Two rings. _“Hello, Papyrus… Grillby spe-”_

“-P… PAPYRUS, HERE! I MUST APO… APOLOGISE - _HAH_ \- I REALLY DON’T HAVE - _HAH_ \- TIME TO CHAT! I’M ACTUALLY - _HAH_ \- QUITE BUSY-” Click.

A snap popped off the fire monster so abruptly that Red Bird turned from his conversation with Punk to see the bartender clutching the receiver rather tightly in his hand. Every swing of the numbers on the old rotary phone was a punctuated and precise notation of his impatience. He waited for the other end to pick up once more.

Three rings this time, and Grillby fought the urge to slap his forehead. _“Papyrus, Sans is with me!”_ he all but snapped into the receiver.

Papyrus’ breaths were haggard and there was a long silence before anything was said, so long that Grillby was concerned that the skeleton had hung up on him again.

“OH.”

 _“He’s safe,”_ the fire monster added kindly. _“Worn out… but got some food into him… Are you… alright?”_

A few more pants from the other end and Papyrus’ voice broke, a sad yet relieved laugh escaping him. “OH GOD. I’M… I’M SO RELIEVED!”

 _“No rush,”_ the fire monster commented quietly. _“Take care of yourself. Come by… when you are able.”_

“IS HE… INJURED?”

Grillby flinched away from the receiver at the other’s volume and delicately cleared his throat. _“Not quite…… Have filled his soul with a healing well, just to be sure.”_

“I DIDN’T REALISE THAT YOU WERE SO FORMIDABLE AND COMPASSIONATE A PERSON, MISTER GRILLBY!” Papyrus thundered, but his tone still sounded relieved. “YOU ARE REMARKABLE. IT IS NO WONDER SANS HAS TAKEN TO YOU AS MUCH AS HE HAS!”

Grillby flushed, flutters of gold flames dancing briefly around his visage. He remained quiet, so sure that if he replied he would either say something incriminating, or his fire would mute whatever he had to say. Regardless, Papyrus took that moment to calm down a little and sighed heavily against his end of the receiver.

“Thank you, Mister Grillby. I’m… actually out in the forest. By Big White. I already tore apart Waterfall looking for him. Of… Of course he would go to you. Why go home, when…” Papyrus trailed off and Grillby felt a pinch of sympathy. “Well, no matter. Thank you again.”

_“....Are you alright?”_

“JUST… need to catch my breath. Never. Better.” Grillby frowned as he recognised the despondent tone. “I’ll be over in a jiffy!”

 _“Take care, Papyrus,”_ Grillby murmured before he hung up. With a silent sigh, the bartender turned to the floor and gestured apologetically to Punk and Red. _‘I’m closing early.’_

When Papyrus finally arrived at the restaurant, Grillby let him in to see Sans, who was still sleeping. At least he had moved, uneasily shuffling to the nearest booth to curl up on the cushioned bench to catch some shuteye.

Instead of displaying his regular disdain for the state of the restaurant, Papyrus bee-lined to where his brother lay and hovered over him hesitantly. His brother looked worse for wear - looking as bad as he was after getting back from his and the fire monster’s first date.

“m’up,” came the quiet rumble from the bench, then a breathless sigh as Sans pushed himself up. He leaned over the tabletop, the spaces under his sockets looking a little bruised with exhaustion. When he caught his brother’s expression, Sans grimaced and averted his eye lights.

Grillby gestured for Papyrus to sit at the opposite side, patient as the younger brother seemed to recognise the way the fire monster was guiding him. It was very likely Grillby was taking it upon himself to mediate between the two skeletons.

 _“I… understand there has been some sort of strife between you two as of late,”_ the bartender started. _“There needs to be… proper communication.”_

He noted how the brothers were avoiding each other’s gaze and he sighed quietly. A wisp of smoke escaped him as he leaned against the side of the booth nearest to Sans.

_“You need to… talk.”_

The two remained quiet as the fire monster looked between them; Sans was hunched into his arms on the table and Papyrus’ back was fully upright and tense.

_“Sans… begins first.”_

Said skeleton’s grin tightened artificially and he pulled his arms closer to him. Whatever was going on in his mind, Grillby wouldn’t have guessed it was _worry_ by the way he spoke.

“knock, knock.”

Papyrus almost flinched. It seemed as though this was a common tactic. With his brother’s reaction, Grillby threw a warning look Sans’ way.

_“...Cannot begin a serious conversation with a joke.”_

“sure i can,” came the muffled, indifferent reply. Grillby knew that Sans was restless, however, still hunched into his arms as though this was the most difficult thing he had to do. The fire monster still had no idea exactly what had happened, only that someone was attacked.

Papyrus inhaled sharply in preparation; “Who’s there?”

Grillby settled his gaze upon the upright skeleton, not fully understanding.

“traitor.”

There it was; the younger of the two tensed and Grillby could very well see the hurt and confusion in Papyrus’ body language. There was a long pause before Papyrus said very quietly; “That is not a joke, brother.”

“it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it, yeah.”

Grillby covered his face with one hand with a silent sigh, but his fire flickered a deep shade of auburn. This conversation had turned for the worse, and Sans’ accusatory tone wasn’t making it any better. He was on the defensive while Papyrus was allowing blows to fall. Were they always like this? Was this how the brothers acted towards each other in private when things were rocky?

“ok… let’s say it _was_ a bad joke. it’s not my first. prob’ly won’t be my last,” Sans shrugged halfheartedly, still not looking across the booth’s table. “not unless your buddy’s got any more wise ideas. and it doesn’t help my best `lil bro is, well…”

“I’M NOT A TRAITOR!”

“well, maybe not. but it doesn’t help me feelin’ like i’ve been betrayed.”

Grillby’s flames sputtered during the banter and he leaned onto the table, eyeing the two. _“This discourse… is unhelpful,”_ his voice rasped suddenly.

“HE ATTACKED MY FRIEND!” Papyrus blurted, then slapped his hands over his teeth as though he hadn’t anticipated the outburst, himself.

“ok. i did, but only `cause _he_ attacked me first.” Sans’ tone was even yet hid a tinge of remorse. “what’s more, i’ve never heard of this ‘friend’, and i pick up on intent pretty well, i’d like to think. that… _thing_ was there, in my lab. my own bro doesn’t believe me.”

“I’VE NEVER SAID THAT!”

Grillby sighed harshly into his hand. _“You both… are dodging.”_

“i’d like to think that i’m keepin’ it pretty cool, grillbz,” Sans muttered in warning, his register low. “all things considered.”

 _“An admirable feat,”_ Grillby humoured him, but did not sound amused this time. _“Papyrus…?”_

The younger brother kept his hands at either side of his legs, his back ramrod straight as he stared at the tabletop as though he could bore a hole into the very centre of it.

“Sans… believes that my friend had something to do with his rebound,” he said very carefully, then stopped. His sockets were trained down so hard that Grillby was certain that if he tried any harder, his brow bone would crack from the expressiveness of his bemusement. “I was looking into it! But I… _also_ have that suspicion.”

It was Sans’ turn to become tense; it was subtle but it was there, the way his bones seized up and his eye lights constricted in realisation. He was no longer quite as much on the defensive, although he was staring at Papyrus now. Expectantly. Waiting.

“I… don’t want to believe it,” Papyrus continued quietly, still staring at the tabletop and avoiding his brother’s scrutinising gaze. “I wanted to get _his_ side of the story.”

Grillby felt the heaviness in the air lighten somewhat with those words, yet Sans had not moved. He sat still and the bartender found it was likely due to the fact that his presence was to blame. To shift things into an easier gear, he gave Sans’ shoulder a brief reassuring pat as he moved away from the booth. As though naturally, he went around the restaurant’s floor to pick up discarded cutlery and dishes before wandering away out of earshot.

“I may very well have, brother,” Papyrus continued once the fire monster was further away, keeping his voice low. His gaze flicked up to see Sans’ eye lights settled on him, hard, hurt and waiting. “He told me you had… ventured near the Barrier.”

Sans’ eye lights constricted again, this time noticeably. He shrunk further into his arms and cast his gaze to the side, suddenly unsure why he couldn’t look at his brother. That, and the sneaky little flower had followed him and Grillby to his hiding spot felt like such a breach of privacy that he felt the need to be on the defensive again. He halted whatever words that he wanted to bark back in irritation, how it all didn’t make sense, but he knew he had to cooperate.

Papyrus had to explain this… friend.

Flower.

Thing.

That apparently stalked him - perhaps it wasn’t even the first time.

 _That_ was the malaise he felt throughout Waterfall, but Sans held those thoughts at bay. He had to listen. He was aware that he wasn’t good at listening when he felt this way.

“He was worried. He told me that monsters that ventured near the Barrier aren’t generally heard from again! Something about how our magical structure weakens due to the humans’ seal? And the dust binding us together filters away, and-” Papyrus’ voice sounded stricken and Sans huffed an irritated sigh into his arms. “-I was worried too. However, nothing that he explains sounds like truths lately.”

“so you’ve said before. that and it sounds like he’s stalkin’ me,” the older brother muttered coldly. “how else would he know?”

“So you don’t deny it.”

Sans scoffed derisively. “do i _look_ like i’m fallin’ apart to you?” Papyrus gave him a rather pained look and Sans happened to glance over just in time to see it. It hurt that his brother was being so secretive and defensive of this monster that was so clearly a threat. “don’t answer then. i don’t care. have this mysterious brilliant ‘friend’ that tells the future. believe him. it’s not like i’m your brother or anything.”

Papyrus shrunk down as though each word was a painful blow. “Sans…”

Silence stretched on between the brothers for some time, the only sounds in the restaurant the faint clinks of glass and dishes as they were cleaned from beyond the kitchen door. Eventually Grillby returned to find the two in a stalemate of silence, the brooding of each brother cloaking the room in a thick discomfort.

He felt it between them; they were stuck. Both of them were being stubborn. Grillby certainly didn’t think it would be difficult; to one that didn’t talk very often, it appeared that way. Yet, Sans was unable to compromise while Papyrus was prideful, yet wounded. A gentle nudging to get them to continue talking would benefit both parties greatly.

As though it had been his plan all along, the bartender brought out a small snack plate. The sliced crab apples had tried to pinch his fingers before Grillby arranged them on the plate alongside some crackers and small cubes of hard cheese.

The plate wasn’t looked at, but Sans took a piece of cheese and squashed it between his phalanges. He was still slumped over the table and looked quite down. Papyrus looked even more desolate if that were even possible; Grillby had never seen the younger brother so despondent, even during Sans’ emergency weeks earlier.

 _“You two…”_ the fire monster began after a hesitant moment. _“Both… prideful.”_ When the others didn’t react, Grillby continued. _“Tenacious.”_

Sans scoffed under his arms and flicked the cube of cheese at his brother. It bounced off Papyrus’ hand and skittered away; even though he flinched, he remained quiet.

 _“Stubborn...”_ the bartender added, glaring down at the two; they were very much acting like children. _“...Does not appear to be much in the way of… progress.”_

Sans gave in to a frigid half shrug while Papyrus bowed his skull and sighed.

The bartender looked between them for a moment before folding his arms over his chest. His posture made him look all the more authoritative and Sans gave him a quizzical look.

 _“Brothers… family. With each, you need to realise where you are. Where… you have come from, because of the other. Put aside feelings of… resentment. And spite… We are not humans. We do not tarnish our souls nor our relationships this way,”_ he chastised quietly. The younger brother was staring at him, attention rapt, while Sans’ grin was tugged downward and he looked confused; but he had their attention.

Pulled from what had to be disparaging thoughts, they were watching him. It was clear that they needed help. Too long have these two held secrets from each other. It was beyond frustrating, that while very few outside knew of the brother’s strifes, Grillby could read them both clearly, and yet not at the same time.

 _“...Am glad you two care enough to wish to protect each other,”_ Grillby continued, his thoughts whirling as he had little time to collect just the right words as to not give offense. _“...However, there is a difference between withholding things out of… sadness. Out of care, if you do not wish to harm the other. Speak… Do not wait until there are regrets. If there are doubts, you must confront them. In a… non-confrontational manner.”_

The two were staring at him openly, causing Grillby to roll his shoulder a little awkwardly at their combined attention.

 _“Some… advice,”_ he offered a little softly, then picked up the discarded cube of cheese and turned away.

Papyrus stayed silent while Sans rumerated his thoughts, waiting until Grillby disappeared into the kitchen. He didn’t want to be mad at Papyrus, but at the same time his brother had to stop keeping secrets; he was aware of the hypocrisy. Sans huffed out another sigh for what had to be the eighth time since Papyrus sat down, then finally drew himself up.

He was well aware of the other’s attention on him but tried to keep himself civil. “do you believe him?”

Papyrus’ shoulders remained slumped and his gaze veered off to the side.

“sorry,” the smaller skeleton muttered, reaching for a cracker. “what i said was outta line.”

“He’s right,” Papyrus said finally. He appeared to be ignoring the apology, as much as he yearned for some kind of reassurance what he had done wasn’t his fault. “Mister Grillby, I mean. He has a cool head for a… er-”

Sans offered a crooked smile but still managed to look sour about it. “ok. how about this, then. why didn’t you tell me?”

“If… I am perfectly honest-” Papyrus hesitated and fixated his stare on Sans’ hands. “-I… had wanted to get all my facts straight. While now it seems so perfectly clear, back then I only had suspicions. I needed answers! I needed proof! And you… you get vindictive if you feel under threat.”

“`justice` sounds a lot cooler than vengeance, just fyi.” Sans leaned back against the booth’s seat and watched his brother, feeling the ebb of anger melt away to be replaced with pity and guilt. He shrugged and grabbed another cracker, tapping it on the table. “i guess i get it.”

Papyrus looked concerned, yet hopeful. That was good at least, Sans reasoned. He waited a moment to see if his little brother would say anything before continuing.

“suppose you’re right. suppose if you told me before i recovered that some freaky flower was tryin’ to ice me. when honestly? you were givin’ me a fightin’ chance. i probably would’ve gone and looked for `im. but what i don’t get is why the thing has such a bone of contention with me.”

He heard Papyrus’ teeth grind and looked up, perplexed.

“I don’t understand it either.”

More silence.

“Suppose it _was_ an accident-” Papyrus tried in earnest. Sans grew irritable almost instantaneously and tossed the crackers back onto the plate with a growl. “Why? Why can’t it be?”

“do you honestly hear the words you’re sayin’ right now, papyrus?” the older brother shot back. “he was there, in my lab! i had my notes out, but when you found me they were locked up. i didn’t fuck up my formula, pap, he _changed_ it. why else, when i lit the box-”

“Which I told you NOT to do!” Papyrus interrupted. His hands had clenched into fists in his lap and his shoulders were shaking under strain. “I _told_ you, Sans. I hate those boxes. What they do to you - what the CORE magic does to you, I’ve never felt such disgust for a magic in my _life!”_

Sans tensed and his eye lights faded from his sockets. His grin tugged down and he pushed himself up to his feet, steadying himself on the table. “you keep flip-floppin’, brother of mine,” his voice sounded tight and pinched as he tried with every fibre of his being to keep calm. “so it’s my fault, huh? `course it is. this ol’ buddy of yours must be a real treasure, if you’re yoyo-ing on how he treats others. havin’ suspicions and then contradictin’ yourself. see things for what the are, pap, otherwise things are gonna fall apart - and quick.”

Papyrus stood up so he was staring at Sans head-on, the two of them scowling, yet Papyrus looking moderately horrified as his brother continued.

“core magic is what i am, little brother. core magic is what’s kept me together all these years,” the other growled, his shoulders starting to shake under his anger. He flung out his right arm and Papyrus’ body jerked in a flinch, but Sans didn’t strike. “my dead arm an’ leg? core magic. my blind side? still held together by core magic! so if anyone’s got any clue how the core works, how its magic is flowin’, _that’s me._ trust me when i say i don’t make errors like that, papyrus. and you stickin’ up for a monster that clearly tried to harm me really fuckin’ hurts.”

Sans was growling lowly, his breaths a little quicker as he waited for Papyrus to say anything. He dared him. He dared him to say anything. He glared at him through void sockets, the phalanges of his left hand scoring the wooden tabletop in a vain attempt to contain himself.

The snap of embers cut through the silence suddenly and Sans felt himself start at the sound. He didn’t need to turn to know that Grillby had come back and likely heard everything. He gritted his teeth and bowed his head, arms shaking with the effort of keeping himself from toppling over the table.

He heard familiar, quick footsteps before he could gather his bearings and drew inwards, plunging into the deep well of magic that had accumulated over the past few days. He gritted his teeth and in an instant let a tear in reality pass over him, almost spitting out the words.

“gimme space.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to: Nanenna, bishie & zay for this chapter. Without their help, it would have taken longer than 3-4 weeks to write it.
> 
> Writing confrontation and choreographing an argument and keeping it realistic (abrupt subject changes, meanings getting lost, high tension, etc) really got to me this chapter, but I hope it came off ok :O (I know I worry and y'all assure me it's fine but salkdfhlgfk)
> 
> Both have valid points in this argument but no one seems to want to fixate on a single thing, which is making Sans frustrated and angry.
> 
> Poor Grillby just wanted to help. :(


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus confides in Grillby. Sans sorts out his issues with a friend and makes a Promise.

Papyrus had sunk back onto the bench, his brother’s words and actions like a blow that caught him so off guard that he had to sit and just process it all. He barely heard Grillby’s words when he assumed he spoke, not filtering the sound of fire as though it was merely ambient noise.

He was just so… pulled into two directions over everything. For one, he would truly hurt Sans if he continued as he was, while he would lose the only friend he felt he had if he entertained Sans’ reasoning.

There was no way that Flowery’s motives were to hurt his brother, Papyrus thought, conflicted. He wished it weren’t true, yet he still had that thin cold feeling that pricked at his soul, telling him otherwise. It nudged at his insecurities, his worries and fears. It thundered through his confidence and threatened to shatter it as it shook him down to his core.

The conversation had taken a darker turn and now Sans was angry with him, but at least he understood the core of the problem now. Sans didn’t get angry at him for no reason; Papyrus shouldn’t have zeroed in on his insecurities like that. He didn’t get angry often, yet Papyrus knew that his brother needed space; he would have known even without being told. He also knew that he was weak, and the quiet worry in his soul grew until Papyrus was sitting frozen in place, staring at the spot where Sans had been minutes earlier in dumb silence.

_‘Gimme space.’_

Papyrus hadn’t heard that in so long. It hurt and he regretted what he’d said and done instantly, his proud shoulders slouching even more under the weight of guilt. He understood what he had to do but it still pained him that his friend, his _only_ friend, was lying to him… or at least, it felt that way.

He couldn’t choose between a friend and his brother, could he.

After a long silence, Papyrus cupped his skull in his hands and leaned over the tabletop. His elbows skidded a bare fraction of an inch with what _had_ to be years of grease and his bones pricked with disgust. But he didn’t move. Instead, he pressed his face into his hands and slowly shook his head.

Perhaps… having friends wasn’t the best course, if it was so risky. He still couldn’t understand his thoughts on this, how Flowery had stalked his brother, knew about his visit to the Barrier, the CORE magic ignition rebound…

He no longer knew if he could trust Flowery as blindingly as he had been this whole time.

 _I don’t know what to do,_ he lamented pitifully. With Sans spending time with his new boyfriend and with him away in Hotland, Papyrus was finding it difficult to keep optimistic. He was happy - no, _ecstatic_ for his brother that he was getting along so well with the bartender.

And yet… he couldn’t help but feel alone.

He shouldn’t feel this way. It wasn’t proper. It wasn’t the _greatness_ that he strived for. He should be relieved that Sans was finally caring about others.

But it was difficult.

The sudden snap of embers nearby jerked Papyrus from his thoughts. Cautiously, he wiped at his face and looked over, a sheepish grin spreading over his features.

“OH. I APOLOGISE. I SHOULD… LEAVE. AND… SEE TO WHERE SANS HAS GONE.”

For an instant, Grillby’s features seemed to melt into a frown before his flames kicked up a little, shifting from auburn to a ruddy red. He hesitated before raising his hands to gesture, but then slowly let them fall to his sides.

 _“Did… you need someone to speak to?”_ came the low gravelly voice.

Papyrus squinted at the other. If he hadn’t known any better, he was under the impression that Grillby was offering a shoulder to cry on. An ear to lend. Even if the former seemed a little too uncomfortable, while the latter was highly unlikely due to the fire monster’s distinct lack of ears.

The skeleton huffed softly and tapped his phalanges against his temple in thought. Did he honestly need someone to talk to…?

The short answer was yes.

But could he really admit that?

How kosher was it to confide in his brother’s lover? Would what he said make its way back to Sans?

Suddenly Papyrus felt very uncomfortable with that prospect.

 _“......Am here,”_ the fire monster added quietly, his head tilting slightly to the side. _“To listen.”_

Papyrus remained silent.

_“I swear… confidence.”_

The skeleton pushed out the breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding, some tension leaving him as he did so. “He does this… a lot, you know,” he started, bringing his hands down to tap idly on the tabletop. “First he’ll hide things and brush them off like it isn’t a big deal. But it is! A very big deal! Especially when he gets it into that thick skull of his that something is ‘off’. Yet it isn’t! But it IS! And… ARGH!”

Grillby slipped into the seat Sans had been occupying and folded his hands over the table, nodding to show he was listening.

“When all this started happening, it was great. He was learning, he was _caring…_ And now it… just doesn’t seem like he cares, again? Or perhaps he does, but too much. And on things that don’t matter. And on his own, but I… really shouldn’t be thinking such things, should I? I shouldn’t, shouldn’t I. It’s not… great.”

 _“Yoyo-ing,”_ the fire monster added, sounding perplexed. _“....Can see why he is frustrated.”_

“Can you??” The skeleton across from him hung his skull in his hands and growled as though in agony.

_“Perhaps… I can see both sides, because I am an outsider.”_

“Oh.”

_“Also… because I care.”_

“...Oh.” Papyrus seemed less sure, suddenly.

_“You are… frustrated, yourself. Are you not..?”_

“I am!” the skeleton agreed emphatically. “It bothers me that he doesn’t stay and talk! When he gets mad he just… _leaves,_ and it… it makes me so frustrated, because the next time I see him, he’s either brooding or pretending or he’s just a complete _mess!”_

The bartender nodded in understanding, although seemed disquieted for the admission. Papyrus took that as a sign to continue.

“Lately… he’s keeping more from me, but he’s… also opening up a little more? He’s doing poorly, but he should know that I am here for him. I always am! It’s not like in his nightmares. I’m not going anywhere, so I don’t understand. And with this… whole mess about the attack…” Papyrus trailed off, suddenly unsure. “I’m _not_ defending what my friend did. I care about my brother very much…”

 _“He… was upset. Your talk does not seem to have… gone well?”_ The other groaned into his hands while Grillby appeared to grimace. _“...Did not imagine putting you two together would… result in such a direct increase in hostilities.”_

Papyrus shook his head but otherwise didn’t respond.

The fire monster hesitated and tapped his index finger against the table’s surface out of habit. _“Perhaps…”_

“I will go look for him,” the skeleton said suddenly. “Make sure he’s… alright.”

 _“You… have been running around for hours,”_ Grillby interjected kindly, his voice full of concern. _“....Appear worn out.”_

Papyrus didn’t reply to that.

 _“....Need to take care of yourself,”_ the other continued carefully, then leaned over the table as though to convey how much he meant it. _“Rest yourself. I will look for him.”_

* * *

It took Sans a moment to regain his bearings when he landed: outside of Snowdin, where it was cold and he could focus on his thoughts. He had blown up. He had spitefully thrown words of hate at his brother and he felt disgusted with himself.

Sliding down the length of the door to the Ruins, he huffed out the last breath of warm air from the restaurant as the dense cold filled the spaces between his bones. He was still feeling ragged, the nap having done nothing for him at Grillby’s, but there was a gentle kindling in his soul from the well of healing magic that had been imparted to him.

Sans drew upon it as he slumped into the snow, using the heavy doors behind his back for support.

He had to think properly. Clearly. He was too wound up, too drawn to the emotional dangers of speaking before thinking things through.

It wasn’t like Papyrus had been _intentionally_ doing this to make him angry. He had been concerned himself and every fibre of Sans’ being screeched with the echo of all the horrible decisions he had been making lately. Blowing up at his brother had been one of the worst, but it certainly was only a strikethrough in a long list of things he’d done wrong by him.

He knew Papyrus didn’t like the dimensional boxes.

He knew Papyrus had a point when he used the word ‘hate’.

He knew how horrible it made him feel when Papyrus couldn’t help him; when his brother could only stand by and wait when he burned himself out.

He knew that Papyrus had his reasons for keeping quiet… He had been trying to puzzle things out before coming to him.

So, who was he really upset with here? He couldn’t fault his brother for that. The fault was with the ‘friend’, of whom Sans was _sure_ attacked him in the basement, with such full clarity that any margin for error was negligible.

Or was it Papyrus, going back and forth on what he said? Contradicting himself? Being so nervous to overstep some hidden friendship with a small golden flower in Waterfall, but at the same time afraid to clash with his brother?

If Sans was honest with himself, he was certain that Papyrus would never harm him - at least, not on purpose. It had happened a few times in the past, accidents, but they had gotten through it together. Grillby was right in that regard. They both were stubborn. Undyne was right, as well; keeping information from each other was just damaging their bond further.

So what had happened, exactly?

Sans sighed and knocked his head back on the door to the Ruins. The noise echoed in his skull cavity and he closed his eye sockets, the bitter cold starting to seep into his bones now that he had been there for awhile. The echo of warm healing magic flowed out from his soul and travelled through his body, soothing an ache and the feeling of being frayed in a gentle pulsing thrum.

“knock, knock,” he muttered softly with a deep inhale. “bad bro,” he answered himself. “bad bro who…? funny you should ask…” Sans huffed quietly, a faint mist escaping his teeth as the last dregs of warmth left him. “bad bro me.”

A bitter laugh escaped him, despite the joke not making a lick of sense, and he curled up into his hoodie as he listened to the motes of snow falling around him. Despite the turmoil in his thoughts, the skeleton could hear faint tinkling bells in the distance that soothed him and soft shakes of snow-heavy branches shifting in the wind. They creaked and they groaned in the false wind supplied by the magic in the Underground.

_Knock, knock._

_Now that’s just mean,_ Sans thought in a doze. He wrapped his arms around himself and shrugged a little more into his hoodie as though to stay warm, even though he knew it was pointless. He was quite a distance from anything even remotely warm.

_Knock, knock._

Sans cracked open an eye socket and glanced around him before realising the sound was coming from the door at his back. Giving in to a shiver, the skeleton pressed the side of his skull against the cold doors and spoke towards the sealed gap.

“who’s there…”

 _Knock, knock._ “Banana?”

Sans grinned sadly, sinking against the door. “i’m the one that told ya that one, doll,” he murmured carefully.

“I will pretend that you have said ‘who is there’, and continue with another, then. Shall I?” the familiar woman’s voice cajoled from her side of the portal. “Butter.”

Sans sighed softly, resigned, “butter who.”

“I _butter_ tell you more knock-knock jokes!”

He offered a chuckle but he wasn’t feeling it, for once.

The woman hummed as though considering her next joke, while Sans grinned lazily to himself. Then she started another one. “Knock, knock.”

“mhm.”

“Are you not well, friend?”

Sans grimaced. “sorry. who’s there.”

There was a pause before the woman spoke again. “Disguise.”

“`sguise who?” the skeleton muttered, exhaustion settling over him.

“ _Disguise_ seeming a little down…” the other replied, although seemed unsure. “Are you… unimpressed?”

“oh,” Sans hesitated, “nah, you were great. guess m’off my game today.”

“Perhaps you could whisper through the door what is the matter,” she said amicably. “This old woman so rarely gets company and I would like to help. What ails you, friend?”

Sans thought on it. It was certainly a loaded question. “what makes y’think i’m sick?”

“I apologise… Being a sentry as you’ve said before, I had been expecting you to be around this way more often, yet you seem to have been absent. This is the case, is it not?”

Sans slumped further against the door with a soft sigh. Had it really been so long since his last visit here..? That couldn’t be right; he supposed with his medical emergency and travelling to Hotland, time seemed to blur together. It had been a couple of weeks at the very least.

“nah. well, yeah. y’kinda hit the nail on the head, there. wasn’t feelin’ great a bit back.”

“If you will permit my prying… you still are not well, is that correct?”

Sans hesitated, opening his eye sockets. He remained silent, his careful grin dropping.

“It is only that… Soul Wells leave a distinct signature. If you are relying on one now, then it is best for you to recover at home with family before heading out to work. As diligent as you are… you must be good, alright? You must take care of yourself, friend.”

Sans snickered at that, the noise muted by the fur lining of his jacket as he buried his face downward. She had a point; ‘Soul Wells’ were typically a last-ditch effort by healers and used in emergencies. If Grillby had been that worried… Sans shook his head and huffed softly as his body drew from the healing font. Grillby wasn’t any kind of healer; he just cared a lot.

Enough to bring the brothers together to talk, despite his efforts. Sans realised he owed the fire monster an apology for involving him.

“such a mom. just like my bro.” He felt sullen, a pinprick of guilt echoing within him at the reminder. It was very likely that Papyrus was out looking for him. Possibly Grillby, too - he just felt too fatigued to move. He regretted running away. He regretted a lot of things right then. “thanks for the concern. i’m ok, though.”

Her tone was very matronly when she spoke next. “Far be it from me to chastise from behind a door.” She paused. “It sounds like there rests a great deal on your shoulders, is that right?”

“how’dya figure.”

“When you get to be my age, a great many things become remarkably apparent despite others’ reservations. Did you have an argument with your brother? Was that why you were chatting to yourself..?”

Sans danced around the subject before ashamedly admitting it, first in his thoughts, then to the woman. He felt small, as though he would be scolded, but that was not the case. The other kept an air of concern about her and listened patiently when he spoke his mind and eventually Sans cooled down. He had calmed to the point where her questions no longer made him bristle, but helped in clearing his mind.

“And why do you think that he would do such a thing, if I may ask?”

Sans faltered, at a loss for words.

“It certainly sounds very complicated, does it not?” He honestly didn’t know what to say to that, so remained silent as she continued. “From what you are saying, it does not appear that you are truly mad at _him.”_

He had admittedly come to that conclusion on his own, yet was a little chagrined that it was apparent to anyone else. He buried his face against the lining of his hood again, giving in to a shiver that rattled audibly.

“That is an unfortunate thing. Do not feel like you are responsible, friend. That is not the case.”

It plucked at his soul that this woman was doing what she could to console him, when he had been sparse on the finer details. He had made an effort to be truthful and unbiased, explaining his reasoning behind his attitude and his brother’s personality-

“A true heart-to-heart with no blame being cast, is what I prescribe. It sounds as though you did attempt conversation before it was derailed.”

That halted the appreciative nature for a moment and Sans groused, sinking against the door in abrupt, curt silence. They had tried that already. That’s what Grillby had told him, before he had screwed everything up by giving in to his temper and then running off.

“There is no need to be defensive, friend. Perhaps it is easier for me to see it from a neutral standpoint. Emotions run high during arguments; I have had many, so I know it is difficult. Sometimes time apart, yet not too much time, is required. I am sure your brother is worried for you, and cares for you despite what you may think. It is likely he feels as much regret as you do, friend.”

Sans had sat silent for the most part of the conversation, idly nodding at the woman’s advice through the door as it gradually soothed him. Like a mother he had never known, like some kind of parental concern that actually made him feel _cared_ for, starkly different than Papyrus or Grillby’s care. It was foreign, yet wholesome.

He interjected occasionally to supply answers to her questions. After all, what harm was there in bearing himself to a monster he would likely never meet face-to-face?

Their conversation had been long. So long that Sans felt frozen, huddled up beside the door as he listened to the other’s muffled, calm voice, staring at the patch of disturbed snow in front of him.

“How are you faring, my friend..?” she inquired after a long moment of them just sitting at either side. “You have been quiet for some time.”

“just thinkin’ about what you said,” the skeleton mumbled, barely pushing the words past his teeth with a soft exhale. He had been dozing with the methodical clicks from her side; knitting needles, probably. It conjured up vague imagery from his early childhood and it was starting to lull him to sleep. “i think you’re right.”

“I knew you would see it my way. Are you keeping warm?”

Sans gave in to a halfhearted laugh. “the cold goes right through me.”

“Dreadful!”

“hey. knock, knock.”

“Oh! Who is there?”

“snow.”

“Snow who?”

Sans smiled a little to himself, a tug at his eye sockets as he fought off sleep. _“snow_ nice to have someone to joke with.” An appreciative hum sounded through the door and Sans gave another soft laugh.

Hours seemed to pass with the nameless woman, who had briefly touched upon Sans’ state from time to time as she grew concerned about him and the chillier weather outside of the Ruins. Sans knew he was pushing it; if he wasn’t careful, snow would lock in his joints and soon he wouldn’t be able to move. Flexing his phalanges brought on a slight twinge and irritated his joints when he tried. His slippers were soaked with wet slush and he was lightly dusted with a thin layer of powdery snow.

“hey.”

“Hello!” she answered back after a moment. Sans wondered if she had been dozing as well.

“i never did ask how your kid was. what was it… they’re awake now?”

“They are… and they are doing quite well. Thank you, friend. Additionally, they are able to walk again. I am very pleased with their recovery.”

Sans smiled to himself at the news. “a kid that got ‘up’ again, huh.”

“They are very determined.”

Something about the way the woman said it made the skeleton feel a little unsettled, but he shrugged the sensation away. The movement was more of a twitch, though.

“May I ask you something, friend?”

Sans grunted softly before shivering out a cold breath. “i mean, if you really wanted to. now’s your chance, i guess.”

“Just… simply out of curiosity, you understand,” she began kindly, yet the woman sounded unsure at the same time. “It has been an age and a half since the last human has… left these doors, has it not?”

Sans thought on that; trying to remember a sombre yet tentative hope in his youth about hearing that a human had fallen into the Underground. He hadn’t seen anything back then, but knew they had been transported through New Home to the King.

“hmm,” he tallied it in his mind. “eighty years, maybe?”

“Eighty-seven.”

“man, no wonder i don’t remember. i was just a babybones back then, heh.”

“I suppose then you did not get a chance to see them, then?”

Sans hesitated. While this was true, he wasn’t sure what the other was getting at. Especially with how the woman had only fleetingly revealed how her child was doing. As though changing the subject. He was suspicious, but decided to continue the conversation; it was the least he could offer with her help.

“nah. i lived at the capital but i was mostly preoccupied with… my education.” Vague enough, he supposed.

“For some reason, and I do not mean for you to take offense… However, you remind me of them. From what you have divulged about yourself. Very impetuous. Have a keen heart for right and wrong. Very… judicious.”

Sans shifted slightly, suddenly uncomfortable. A flash of gold briefly spilled from his good eye and he laughed wryly, winking to diffuse the called-out magic.

“you got that from a handful of conversations, hey?”

She chortled kindly. “It is in my nature. Like I have said, I meant no offense. Tell me. What is your opinion of humans?”

“uh…” Sans lifted his arm with a little difficulty and grimaced. He was locking up from the cold. “honestly? don’t have one.”

“I understand. It is… difficult to judge something you have never encountered before. Much like the night sky if you have never seen it.”

Sans felt the kindle of warmth at the memory of seeing Grillby’s sunset and grinned to himself. He was able to forget his worries for a moment, as silly as it was.

“She…” The woman stopped and the skeleton leaned against the door a little more, his spine aching. “She was extremely determined. They all… were. She, however, despite my protests, wanted to do good by us. She was friendly and played nice with our kind within these ruins. She understood and even grew angry over our imprisonment and vowed to make amends. To ‘do the right thing’. Although she was not at fault, she claimed responsibility for her kind and their past transgressions.”

“wow. how old was this thing? doesn’t sound like any human the guard talks about,” Sans muttered quietly, attempting to shuffle his legs.

“She was seventeen. Barely an adult in her own world, and already felt such responsibility. I admired her greatly, for one so young.” There was another pause. “I suppose that… it is very likely that she no longer lives.”

The skeleton hummed in thought. “humans don’t live long, right?”

“Comparatively to our kind, no they do not. While I had wished that she grew into old age peaceably alongside our kind, I fear her… encounter with the King. With Asgore. Put to her a… premature end.”

The silence between the two became long and heavy. Sans was of course aware of the charge the King had borne for their kind, how much he shouldered under the rule as the King Under the Mountain. Yet, something else was there. As though there was a private agony being shared with him.

Sans didn’t know how to console this woman. The truth was that the King took the soul of any human that entered their realm. As a sentry, it was his duty to report to the Guard any human activity in the Underground. The fact it had been so long was merely a trifle. In the beginning he had been a little nervous, sure, but after decades passed, Sans was less and less sure of another falling down and passing through. And so he grew complacent, thinking the day would never come.

“I have an odd request to make,” the woman finally spoke up. “I know it would go against the very nature of your station, however… Please. If a human ever comes through this door… could you please promise something?”

Sans waited as he heard a sombre sigh from the other side. His bones itched with every word, reaching inside of him and setting off that feeling that maybe _that_ was what he was drawn to all this time. Drawn to the doors. Drawn to the knocks.

To a promise.

What a strange thought.

“Watch over them, and protect them, will you not?”

The skeleton whistled lowly after a moment. What a loaded request. In his shape, and with what Undyne had lectured him on… and the strange things going on in the Underground, Sans wasn’t sure. He didn’t promise. It was something he felt uneasy about.

But the woman was genuine. Sombre and collected, with an air that he just couldn’t refuse. Had he known, he would have pegged her as a quiet homely lady that had grown too attached to the last human that passed through.

Not thinking a human would fall into the Underground at any point in his lifetime yet unable to shake the vague familiarity, Sans resigned himself.

“sounds like sayin’ ‘no’ isn’t an option. an’ after all that, welp…” He shuffled again, uneasy with the feeling of being cornered, yet being led down a path he felt was supposed to happen and not at the same time. “i mean…”

“It would… mean very much to me. If they had at least one person out there watching their back. Inside of the Ruins I am able to control a great deal, however, since the others have left, the Underground has increased in aggression with our collective restlessness. It would give me… peace of mind.”

Sans shifted uncomfortably, a nagging feeling twinging at his soul.

“just gotta look out for `em, huh? i mean… sure. why not.”

“Please…”

“ok.” The skeleton grimaced at her pleading tone, feeling such sympathy for the poor woman that his heart throbbed with empathy. “i promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look. Canon stuff. 8D
> 
> *** Just note, while the fic tags say it's pre-canon, it's ultimately going to go through gameplay aspects so there will be spoilers if you have not done an Undertale playthrough. Just forewarning that it's in the distance, not yet written, but it will be addressed in the fic.**
> 
> As of next week's upload, there is no more buffer. From April-September is my busy time at work so updates will no longer be weekly ~~unless a miracle happens.~~ I didn't realise how much I wrote at work during 'downtime'. 8D;;;
> 
> Thank you again to everyone who is reading, your comments and speculation really are fabulous and I love you lots for joining me in this journey ;u; ~~We're not even halfway done lmao this is going to be a monster-sized fic (wait that was a pun [dammit])~~


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Grillby search all over hell's half-acre for the missing skeleton. Grillby comes to a rather worrisome realisation when Papyrus asks him something. Alphys aids with the use of her cameras. Sans doesn't look too good.

Grillby exhaled a hot breath as he followed apprehensively behind the other skeleton. Papyrus had been adamant on leading their search for Sans. They found themselves in Waterfall and the fire monster’s blaze peaked every so often, brightening the path and sending mist this way and that.

“He always comes out here,” Papyrus was saying, stalking ahead as he stepped over small piles of slashed typha reeds and grasses. He paid no mind as Grillby’s agitated state seemed to make things wilt in his presence. “When he needs to think on his own, nyeh heh…”

The fire monster remained quiet as Papyrus rounded a corner, using the ledge as leverage as he peered around an awkward bend where the bench area was just out of reach. The skeleton seemed to hover over the water for a moment before Grillby balked crisply and grabbed the other’s arm to pull him away from the water’s perilous edge.

Papyrus just stared at him before both of them realised what had happened and the skeleton laughed awkwardly when Grillby quickly withdrew his gloved hand.

 _“...Apologies,”_ he crackled, embarrassment and concern evident in his tone.

Papyrus looked as though he was about to comment, but instead left it alone. He was fully aware how peculiarly Grillby was acting and it was likely that the marsh was to blame. He witnessed another brief flare-up of fire before the other monster wrapped his arms around himself, looking around precariously.

“I believe that perhaps you should stay behind-” the tall skeleton repeated for what had to be the seventh time in the few hours they’d spent looking around Waterfall. “It’s dangerous here for you, isn’t it!”

Grillby rolled his shoulder uncomfortably, his body tensing defensively at the other’s words.

_“Nonsense.”_

Even though the other was stubborn and seemed paranoid, Papyrus didn’t object. In fact, he was relieved in a way; having someone else to focus on prevented his thoughts from wandering on his brother’s state. The more time that passed and Sans wasn’t found, the more the feeling seemed to crawl over him like insects. After awhile, he sighed heavily into his hands and stalked past Grillby, whom had shrunk into his jacket, flames keeping low to his body.

Even though Grillby had thoughts on Sans’ state, he couldn’t help but recall the words the other brother had said before departing. That he needed space. And yet… he was weakened by whatever attack he had used before turning up at his restaurant.

Everything was unclear, and Papyrus wasn’t offering up any information. He seemed to sense the fire monster’s discomfort at least, and promptly decided to return to Snowdin.

“I have to do the right thing. Even if Sans said…” He seemed to hesitate for an instant, then drew himself up in an act of self-assurance almost immediately. “I have to. Even if it is difficult! I have to persevere!”

That was admirable, at least. Grillby followed behind him as Papyrus stalked through the slushy streets, beelining right past his restaurant. It was getting late, the light of the Underground settling into calm twilight, leaving the fire monster as the only point of light.

 _“...Papyrus,”_ he called out, his voice crackling wearily. Waterfall had taken a lot out of him, exhausting him both mentally and metaphysically. His flames were still low despite getting away from the damp environment and he lingered near the window to his home, unable to decide if he should stay and let Papyrus continue on his own, or simply call for a rest.

He decided with a soft huff, drawing the tall skeleton’s attention, _“...require a moment.”_

Papyrus had turned to regard him, evidently confused. He eyed the fire monster before his features softened in that peculiar way the brothers did, solid bone shifting to accommodate expressions as easily as other monsters did.

“Mister Grillby…. Why are you dim!?”

Grillby shifted towards the door, rubbing his arm but volunteering no recourse as to how horrible he felt. He simply watched as Papyrus tittered apologetically, and shook his head dismissively as he opened the door.

_“...Should rest. Give him… a moment.”_

“He’s had several… but…” The skeleton’s sockets narrowed at him and for a moment Grillby and he were staring at each other expectantly. Then the fire monster sighed, unable to keep up the charade for much longer and his grip tightened against the door’s handle.

 _“....Come inside,”_ he offered haltingly, still trying to keep up the pretense of being unaffected by the search in such wet climes. _“A milkshake, correct?”_

Papyrus hesitated before getting the hint and followed the fire monster inside, who retreated to the kitchen to prepare some food.

It was very apparent that Papyrus was pushing himself. He had heard it from Sans often enough, how he had rattled when exhausted or frightened. While Papyrus rattled, it sounded a little different, as though it was a lower note. It was a peculiar detail but Grillby chalked it up to one of their many differences.

It took a little over an hour for him to feel strong enough to continue, his health steadily inclining as he lit the stove and fryer in the kitchen to add to the heat of the restaurant. He brought out Papyrus’ milkshake first, insisting it was complimentary, before roasting food for himself in the back.

Grillby was exhausted. Confused. Concerned, above all else, of how Sans reacted to everything. How he had pushed himself. How he had pushed Papyrus away, before… using a shortcut. _Fleeing._

Grillby pressed his hands to his face and inhaled deeply to calm down before heading out of the kitchen, a great deal brighter than previously.

“BETTER?” the skeleton chirped as the fire monster pulled on his jacket again, taking care to wrap a scarf around his neck. If their efforts in Waterfall were anything to go by, they would be searching for awhile. But then, he hoped not. When he gave Papyrus a short nod, the other brightened as though eager to continue. “GREAT! THEN! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO!”

First they went north past the bridge leading into Snowdin, towards Ridge where a slightly larger town lay nestled in the deep forest. The sleepy streets were already quiet, and any amount of knocking on doors was only met with irritation and their disappointment. Papyrus didn’t appear to let it affect him, but every time Grillby was met with a thoughtful look and shake of the head, he could feel his heart sink with growing apprehension.

Next was due west, bypassing the skeleton brothers’ puzzles like so many times before. Grillby was hesitant to travel so far to his secret place in the crystalline caves, so thought he would save the suggestion for last, if they had no other alternatives. It seemed unlikely that Sans would turn up there, since Sans had slept for the majority of the travel time there and back. It was unlikely Sans knew its exact location, Grillby thought.

Papyrus asked the Dogi who were late in their shifts, but they both tilted their heads, sniffing the air. One of Dogaressa’s ears cocked to the side briefly before she shook her head in apology. If the skeleton was worried about this turn of events, he did not show it. Yet Grillby knew that the fact the Dogi couldn’t smell Sans nearby was a point against them.

They attempted another route: south. The cottage in the middle of the forest clearing that remained lit housed a family of snowy monsters, who eyed Grillby warily as he kept a respectful distance. When Papyrus described Sans, they appeared unimpressed, but they hadn’t seen him either.

The fire monster pulled his jacket’s collar closer to him, his flames starting to protest again. While he didn’t feel the cold, the constant flicker of snow falling from above made him increasingly irritable and restless, and he could feel a dip in the temperature he was producing.

“I know that it is unlikely-” Papyrus was saying quietly as he trudged along through the crunchy snow. The fact he had kept his voice down surely meant that he thought Sans would be alerted by his normally boisterous tone and they would fail their search. “-but we should… ugh, try his station, perhaps? Do you have any ideas, Mister Grillby?”

The fire monster huddled against himself, eyes searching the dark landscapes as his flames crackled diminutively. _“..........Avalanche site?”_ he suggested uneasily. He was very aware that much sudden snowfall would be enough to snuff him out.

“We’ll head there after his station, I suppose,” the skeleton muttered more to himself as he paced on the spot.

Grillby followed automatically. The only things that they found at Sans’ sentry station were empty condiment bottles, several that Grillby noted were from his restaurant, much to his brief amusement. While the other sighed in exasperation, the fire monster scanned the thicket of trees around the outpost and the ground.

No footsteps in the snow.

No sign of Sans.

They headed north-west through the thicket, Grillby relishing the lack of snow as his heat steadily inclined again. He muted it against the dry tinder around him, carefully keeping his flames under control as to not spark out unexpectedly.

Papyrus was still rattling. He was clutching his phone in his hand, shaking more and more the longer they searched with no sign of his brother in sight. Grillby was teething the corner of his mouth, fangs nervously pressed against the plasma that his body produced. They couldn’t even trace him with his cell phone; Sans didn’t have it on him.

What did cold do to a skeleton, Grillby wondered? He wasn’t entirely sure what ‘cold’ felt like, and it wasn’t as though he could compare Sans’ reactions to those of fleshy monsters. He had witnessed a few subtle shivers, but Sans hadn’t complained. Only murmured his appreciation for his warmth and the comfort it brought.

A few embers popped off from Grillby unexpectedly. Why was he thinking of _that..?_

His wandering thoughts were halted when suddenly Papyrus turned to him, his demeanour very much hesitant and looking like something was bothering him. _Of course_ something was bothering him, Grillby chastised himself. The fact that Sans had run away after their argument would be enough to worry anyone.

Tilting his head to the side in askance, Grillby waited until Papyrus appeared ready to say something, his chest heaving with a deep intake of breath.

“Mister Grillby, I… I have a somewhat unsettling inquiry. While normally I, as Sans’ brother, should know this, it strikes me that this could very well be something he’s taken to hiding from me.”

Oh. Grillby felt his core twist a little in unease, although he wasn’t sure why. To show he was being attentive, the fire monster nodded for the other to continue.

“W-wowie, just…” It was apparent that the other monster was backpedalling in his mind, so Grillby nodded again urgingly. “It’s just, I’ve heard that… Sans was near the Barrier.”

 _Oh._ The fire monster didn’t immediately reply, but it sure felt as though his temperature plummeted. What had been a happy memory of their time together was now tainted with uncertainty.

It hadn’t been dangerous, more out of the way and cumbersome to get to, but Sans nor he had been in any sort of peril. Neither of them had approached the Barrier or even touched it, which-

Grillby’s flames sputtered briefly. He recalled when Sans had been so moved that he had to be pulled back, that he had nearly darted towards the humans’ magic seal. They had been far enough away for the other not to make contact, however… now he just wasn’t sure. Had it been enough? Had he contributed to some unknown condition?

“I just… heard that the Barrier can destabilise the magic we are composed of, a.. and, I would hate for… for Sans to become ill,” Papyrus was saying quietly. “I know he might not be a reliable source of information anymore, however… my friend told me….”

Grillby barely heard the rest of the skeleton’s sentence. His silence continued, his heart and soul twisting with uncertainty. This wasn’t anything he had heard of before, but since their time underground had been so long, it was very possible that information relating to human magic was lost over the centuries.

“He… He seems fine,” Papyrus ended up finishing. “I’m certain… that information is outdated. Or wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve… _misconstrued_ what someone has told me!”

Grillby found that the words just wouldn’t form. His flames were balking and shrinking around his body in agitation and worry, the colour of his element shifting to rusty colours to reflect his discomfort.

...Was he responsible for Sans’ agitation and aggression? The reason he was acting like a child, so much that others in town were noticing? His temperature sunk again so much that he felt a sting when a large clump of snow melted on his gloved hand and he jerked with a startled hiss.

This wasn’t good. If Sans was affected by the Barrier and was weakened as a result, they had to find him quickly!

Just as he was about to come clean to the other, a sudden loud and jaunty tune echoed through the trees, making him crackle with a start and a yelp came from Papyrus.

“H-hello! This is the Great Papyr-” He stopped his phone greeting, looking less concerned than he had been previously. Grillby could hear the faint chatter of someone speaking very quickly through the receiver, but it wasn’t loud enough to make out. Inquiringly, the fire monster stared at Papyrus, hoping and pleading with the universe for some good news.

Or _any_ news, really.

Papyrus seemed to see whatever passed for anxiety in the other’s visage as his expression softened and he told the other to stop talking. Grillby remained quiet and confused as Papyrus tapped a couple of keys on his phone and suddenly the other end was on the speaker.

“H-hello? Wh… why did you tell me to, um. To stop?” Oh. Grillby recognised this voice; it was the Royal Scientist, Alphys. He was suddenly unsure why he felt like this might be bad news. “P… Papyrus?”

“Hello! Yes! I am here! And very much anxious to hear what you have to say!” the skeleton said apprehensively. “You said something about my brother!”

“Well… well, yes, um. I was… I was just concerned. I mean, he hasn’t moved for a bit, and it’s dark, and he looked, well-”

“HE LOOKS LIKE GARBAGE, DARLING,” came a robotic yet nonchalantly indifferent tone in the background of the call.

Alphys coughed excusingly. “Is… there a reason Sans is by the Ruins? I, I tried calling but he, uh… looks like he fell asleep.”

Papyrus slapped a hand to his brow bone and groaned in exasperation. “ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY BEING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW, DOCTOR ALPHYS?? WE’VE BEEN SEARCHING THIS ENTIRE TIME FOR HIM AND HE’S _NAPPING??”_

“I… I mean, h-he doesn’t look well, like M-Mettaton said. I mean, he doesn’t look like… like _garbage,_ but… he’s, um. He’s. He’s seen better days.”

“YOU MEAN TO TELL ME,” Papyrus huffed into the phone, “YOU SAW HIM ON ONE OF YOUR CAMERAS.”

“Y… yes?”

“AUGH.”

“Is… he ok?”

The skeleton paused and suddenly smiled brightly, something Grillby grew deeply concerned about. “OH YES. ENTIRELY FINE. NO NEED TO CONCERN YOURSELF, DOCTOR!”

“It’s just that he, um… well, I was first able to track him… Hm, maybe I actually can’t tell you that?” Alphys tittered nervously, more to herself than to Papyrus.

“THE RUINS, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. BUT I WILL! FOR YOUR AIDE HAS SAVED US MANY MORE HOURS OF SEARCHING!”

“G-gosh, wow, a-are you… are you serious? _Hours??”_

“YES, YOU WERE INCREDIBLE! YOU HAVE THE GRATITUDE OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS. I WILL CALL YOU LATER WHEN SANS IS BACK HOME.” And with that Papyrus ended the call, abruptly ending the start of Alphys’ response.

Then he sighed, all energy seeming to leave him at once.

 _“....Hours,”_ Grillby repeated, concerned. _“Why the misdirection?”_

“I can’t believe that bonehead,” the other grumbled a little sourly, ignoring Grillby’s question. “He’s likely to be frozen by now.”

The fire monster tilted his head, the image of Sans in a cube of ice like what he had seen one of the wolves in Snowdin tossing into the river time and time again. As a fire monster, he didn’t really understand what the other meant. That couldn’t be what Papyrus meant, but couldn’t ask for clarification. Papyrus had already gathered his bearings and darted off south-west, back towards the path to Sans’ sentry station, leaving Grillby to hurry along after him.

Grillby didn’t think he would have it in him to follow behind Papyrus for as fast as he was going. He lept over embankments in a flurry of limbs and kicked the snow behind him. It was strange. It was as though his jumps took him farther, his strides short but carrying him a further distance. The fire monster merely huffed and ran behind him, trying his best to keep up and keep his flames contained.

Papyrus didn’t even appear to recognise that he was having issues keeping his speed. He was quick, but thanks to the bright red scarf, Grillby could keep him in his sight.

As bad as the snowfall was, it was at least lightening up. If Sans had been outside the entire time, however…

A tremor went through his flames with the thought.

What would happen? He hoped that Sans was alright. The fact the doctor had said he didn’t look good was prying into Grillby’s thoughts, wheedling him into a state of contrition.

Eventually he caught up with the taller skeleton outside of an unkempt sentry station, which he recognised as Sans’ from before. Grillby leaned against it for balance as he caught his breath while Papyrus idled by restlessly. It was though he was trying very hard not to just bolt off ahead again, but Grillby knew better than to keep him waiting.

 _“Go on ahead,”_ he urged between breaths.

Papyrus looked as though he was fighting with himself to leave Grillby behind. He eyed him, then the path forward, then back to the fire monster. It seemed to be enough to toil his thoughts, as the skeleton finally relented after a brief hesitation and sprinted off into the thicket of trees.

If worse came to worst, Grillby could pluck out the spot of red in the trees after he had caught his breath.

He must have taken longer than he thought. His chest twinged with an ache that his mothers would have likely chastised him for being out of proper temperature range, and this is what he got for keeping to such unnatural climates for so long. His health had taken to gradually petering downward and now rested just over half of their usual number. Grillby passed a hand over the flames of his head and adjusted his scarf to better ward against the humidity of snow assaulting him.

“MISTER GRILLBY!”

The fire monster gave pause and wandered a little ways into the thicket, careful to keep his flames away from the vegetation again. Concerned, he saw Papyrus sprinting towards him once more, feeling his heart plummet when he saw the distraught look on Papyrus’ features.

And the fact that Sans was not with him.

“QUICKLY! PLEASE-” the skeleton chattered loudly. Grillby was surprised when the other took him by the arm and jerked him into the direction from which he’d already came, making him stumble clumsily.

 _“How is..?”_ he started, only to be interrupted.

“WE’RE TOO LATE! OH GOD!”

With energy renewed by sudden abject distress, Grillby wrestled his arm from Papyrus’ grasp and ran forward ahead of him. If truth be told, his fires burned a little lower than usual and tried to lick out at the branches to strengthen themselves as he darted past.

He almost didn’t recognise him. Slumped against the door to the Ruins was a skeleton, a layer of snow resting atop of him. Grillby stopped several yards away, breathing harshly in surprise, steam wafting from his open mouth. Papyrus’ boot prints only went ahead so much before he had darted back and now the other was finally approaching Sans.

Sans… who was, no, not encased in an ice block as he’d foolishly assumed, but was covered with snow and looked quite stiff. If monsters didn’t shift into a heap of ashen dust when they died, Grillby would have jumped to a rather desolate conclusion.

Instead, he carefully made his way over while Papyrus brushed the snow off from Sans’ clothes and the small pile from atop of his skull, but he didn’t move him. In fact, Papyrus was very careful _not_ to move any part of Sans at all.

Grillby watched for a moment before settling beside the younger brother in front of the sleeping monster, hearing the low-toned rattle coming from Papyrus once again.

“Sans… don’t try to move, you silly.” Papyrus gestured for the fire monster to lean in closer and cautiously Grillby looked up, eyeing the shift of snow above the portal and higher. He couldn’t stay long. His presence would warm the icy walls and the snow would fall. He shuddered uneasily. “Mister Grillby, your hand.”

Grillby eyed the other’s shaky hand hesitantly. While it had been proven that he didn’t harm Sans with his own body, he was still unsure about his brother, and definitely knew better than to touch any of the other monsters in town.

Impatient, Papyrus grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, then carefully settled Grillby’s hand over Sans’ hoodie, barely applying any pressure.

“Warm him up, please,” Papyrus said abruptly, his teeth chattering nervously. “Don’t…. Don’t try to move him, or push against him. Something might… break.”

The fire monster flared a ruddy shade of auburn and pulled away from Sans. Papyrus grew distraught but the fire monster shook his head and quickly uncovered one of his gloved hands. The temperature dipped and Grillby rasped softly, pushing a few flames between his fingertips to venture towards Sans again.

A soft huff came from the prone skeleton when flames travelled from Grillby’s hand and beneath his clothes, the gust a mist that denoted how cold it had become. The fire monster’s thoughts raced, tumbling over and over.

“Don’t move,” Papyrus was saying, his whispers shrill as he gently wiped the melting snow from his brother’s skull. “Don’t move, _don’t move._ We’ll warm you-”

Feeling worn from their search along with the building distress from finally finding Sans in such a state, Grillby lowered his head in exhaustion.

 _“Move him,”_ he muttered, his flames flickering lower as he repressed his temperature to prevent the ice melt. _“...Cannot stay here long.”_

“WHY!?” Papyrus boomed suddenly and Grillby stopped dead, his eyes flitting upwards towards the snow looming overhead.

He guided a few more flames out of his hand and coaxed them beneath Sans’ hoodie and shirt, wafts of steam trailing behind like small clouds. He hushed the taller skeleton softly, indicating the threat above them. Papyrus’ sockets narrowed in suspicion, but he was mercifully quiet.

“...nnh…”

Both of their gazes trained on the smaller monster and Grillby’s flames pulsed with relief. It appeared that Sans was waking and even tried to shift, much to Papyrus’ avid concern.

“Don’t, don’t-” he continually pleaded with him, “- _don’t,_ brother. Not yet.”

 _“Let me know when it’s enough. I will carry him back,”_ the fire monster offered under a veiled grimace. When Sans’ eye lights guttered into existence, Grillby gave him a relieved smile. _“There you are.”_

He silently told his flames to behave themselves, only touching upon Sans’ joints enough to warm him and melt away the ice that had locked him up. With the faint creak and groan from high above, Grillby stopped and drew back his hands in concern, his bright eyes wide at the threat.

“warm,” came the groggy tone of Sans’ voice, bare and thin with a hint of confusion.

“Yes, Sans! Warm! You’ll keep getting warm until you’re good to move. We’ll take you home, and… and get you something to eat. That would be fine, yes? It’ll be fine!” Papyrus was jittery, something that Grillby focused on when he leaned in a little more to listen to the fire within Sans’ body.

They told him of the other’s state, how _non-warm_ he was, how stiff and how things hurt. They whispered of _burning,_ of his soul aching, they wanted to help. The Well was secure and Sans was still drawing upon it. Grillby knew that was a contributing factor as to why he felt weakened - yet he carried on, sparing his own internal temperature to heat the other so that he could be moved without something… _breaking._

A shudder passed through his flames with the thought of what Papyrus’ warning had conjured. Of a crack that would spread, like along glass if it got hot too quickly after being outside all night. Of china splitting after years of abuse. Grillby swallowed the worry and huffed out a soft breath of effort as his thoughts pestered him.

He had taken Sans to the Barrier… to visit the sky. A glimpse of the Surface, to renew and share a hope with the one he loved that maybe they might live to see it together. But instead, his good intentions had likely withered his lover and made him unstable.

Jerked from self-admonishing thoughts, Grillby felt a skeletal hand rest over his own, a subtle rustle as startled gasps shook Sans. He flicked his gaze forward and up again to the threat of snow, then back down to the skeleton in front of him, who was grinning a little sheepishly, his eye lights faded in his sockets.

He didn’t say anything apart from what he had before, but soon Sans was shaking with strain to push himself up to his feet. The snow stuck to him along the backs of his track shorts and his hoodie, falling from him in crisp sloughs.

Papyrus hung back, unsure what to do now that Sans was able to move. Grillby pulled him into his arms, his flames ruddy and dark, heat throwing off of him with such uneven intensity.

Even if he didn’t think it explicitly, Papyrus felt in his heart and soul… that his brother more than likely didn’t need him anymore. Watching the two in an embrace that made him feel like he was intruding, the younger skeleton simply averted his gaze, his smile stiff, his entire being seized and numb.

He needed to apologise… in private. And then Sans could-

“bro.”

Papyrus froze in place, his gaze trained on the melting snow at the fire monster’s feet. He stiffened when he drew up, arms hanging at his sides when he heard his brother’s voice. The clicks from his brother’s shivering movements crossed between the two monsters and Sans huffed quietly with the effort.

He knew Sans was putting on a front in the company of his lover. Papyrus was strained to keep composed, heart heavy as Sans settled his hands on his shoulders to steady himself.

The fire monster watched for a moment before ducking away from the sealed entrance to the Ruins and towards the thicket they had come from, to give the brothers privacy. Sans had noticed he was looking unnaturally dim and threw him a worried look before turning back to regard his brother.

He was holding up. Despite the cruel things he’d said to him, Papyrus looked like a beacon of strength. Sans felt guilt for it all the more, pinching along his ribs and coiling around his soul as he drew his arms around his brother’s shoulders.

“m’sorry, papyrus,” he muttered between them, “m’awful and i said a lot of crap i shouldn’t’ve. i didn’t… i wasn’t thinkin’ clearly. i know you’re not against me.”

Papyrus balked at Sans; with how angry he had been, he was… really apologising so soon? He had been ready to be avoided, for everything to be unclear and just meld back into broad obscurity, the way things had always been.

Perhaps it was that Sans felt guilt for erupting with such anger, as it were. Perhaps he finally understood Papyrus’ reasoning behind why he had held back.

Legs weak, Sans grabbed onto his brother’s shirt with a muffled, bitter chuckle. “i’m fine,” he offered offhandedly.

Papyrus stayed quiet, wondering if that were truly the case. He worried despite everything. Things had been going well; maybe the quick succession of bad things had just overwhelmed Sans… as they had overwhelmed himself.

He brushed the more stubborn clumps of snow that had frozen to Sans’ hoodie and held onto him tightly. They couldn’t stay angry with each other. Each other was all they had.

Except…

Papyrus’ gaze found the fire monster, out of the way, whom had stooped low to the ground away from the threatening mountainside, a small perimeter of slush gathered around his feet. He realised he had been unfair to Grillby, hauling him to Waterfall, then out to the woods to search for and thaw his brother.

He knew he was being selfish. He had to stop those thoughts, Papyrus mentally berated himself. Stroking over the top of Sans’ skull and realising he’d been silent this entire time, the younger of the two skeletons sighed almost theatrically.

“I’M GLAD,” he replied after too long of a pause. He saw the hurt in Sans’ expression before it disappeared, wondering what it meant. “WE’RE GOING HOME.”

Sans nodded, feeling chagrined. It felt as though their roles were reversed once again, and that Papyrus was the older brother. Maybe he’d stop correcting people when they erroneously assumed that was the case.

He grunted in surprise when Papyrus hauled him up and wrapped his arms around him, supporting him under the femurs and his back. Sans sunk against him in embarrassment, soul trembling in self-loathing.

It felt like Papyrus didn’t forgive him.

It honestly felt like he was just going through the motions.

With that, Sans felt a heavy revelation. He had clearly messed up.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby sleeps over at the brothers’ house to keep an eye on Sans. Papyrus keeps an eye on them both, as Grillby appears to be weakened. The Barrier rumour gets debunked by Alphys. The brothers have a true heart-to-heart.

Grillby looked at his restaurant longingly as Papyrus urged him forward, Sans in his arms. “Come on, Mister Grillby. I will not have you alone during all this, I’m so very terribly sorry that I’ve dragged you this way and that… Please, allow me to repay you-”

The fire monster couldn’t very well turn down Sans’ brother even if he had wanted to. While Sans had hummed appreciatively in his arms after being thawed, he now looked dejected and distracted in his brother’s, avoiding his gaze every time their eyes met. So Grillby opted to allow his flames to branch upwards a little to stretch out, trying to regain temperature control while Sans snuck concerned looks his way.

Perhaps he looked in worse shape than he originally thought. Grillby’s flames bunched out and pulsed before fettering back against his form, strained and thin and not at all robust. Sans lifted his skull from Papyrus’ shoulder to see clearly, feeling a pinch of nervousness the other’s actions brought.

So what was going on? What had happened to affect Grillby in such a way? Discreetly, Sans pushed himself to Check, but caught the warning look the bartender shot him when he felt the ethereal touch.

“sorry.” _Just worried._ Sans lowered his gaze to Papyrus’ footprints as he was carried towards their house.

He still felt exhausted and as stubborn as he was, appreciated the fact that his brother was still carrying him. After they had entered the house, Papyrus kicked off his boots and allowed Sans to slide down to his own feet, unsteady where he stood. Leaning against the door, the older of the two watched as Grillby was led over by the arm and forcefully made to sit on the couch. A few dim embers popped off the fire monster when Papyrus turned and rounded on Sans, who threw up his hands in a placating gesture.

“ALRIGHT,” Papyrus started, all business now that any threat of others overhearing was gone. Instead of the continuation to his thought however, Papyrus grabbed Sans and brought him over to the couch and pushed him to sit beside the fire monster. “YOU NEVER ANSWERED ME,” he continued shortly, all premise of insecurity gone.

Sans stared at him in confusion and Grillby hunched his shoulders, feeling a well of guilt build up inside of him. While inside was definitely preferable to the outdoors, Grillby still felt under the weather. Now put on the spot, his regular silence got to the better of him. He stayed quiet when Sans looked at him, confused and exhausted.

“THE BARRIER,” Papyrus sighed. “IT’S NO USE HIDING IT, SANS. I KNOW WHAT IT DOES!”

Sans sputtered indignantly as the cogs began to turn in his head. He realised that no, he hadn’t addressed this, although he was keenly aware of Grillby’s sudden discomfort. He didn’t know what to think of it, so naturally assumed the fire monster was merely being polite after being forced to come over for Papyrus’ interrogation.

“bro, in all honesty. kinda?”

“KIND OF??”

Sans shrugged and leaned against Grillby, his warmth seeping through his clothes, although not as pronounced as what was usual. It wasn’t even drying the moisture. “well, i didn’t touch it.”

Grillby coughed quietly, clearly uncomfortable under scrutiny. _“We were… near it. Did not make contact, however,”_ he agreed a little lamely, rubbing his arms with his hands in order to spark his heat to a more comfortable level.

“BUT-” Papyrus stopped himself short and paced in front of the pair, back and forth, back and forth, until his brother finally spoke up.

“honest. even if your…” he bit back an insult and muttered quietly, _“little friend_ told you otherwise, i’m fine. we didn’t touch it. m’not lyin’.”

Papyrus regarded the two as though his direct glare would evaporate any ruse. Then he sighed, internal conflict rearing its ugly head.

“we didn’t touch it, pap,” Sans said again insistently.

 _“Delta’s Oath…”_ There was a hint of regret in Grillby’s tone that made the shorter skeleton pause, but he made a mental note to ask later. _“Promise.”_

The younger brother glared at them both, arms crossed in front of him as though he was having trouble gauging something in his mind. For all intents and purposes, Sans supposed he had every right to be suspicious, but not with this. It was common enough knowledge not to touch areas the Barrier covered, but nothing inherently bad happened to anyone if they were close. If that had been the case, _hundreds_ of monsters would’ve lost their lives during the Underground’s expansion stages.

“ok. you don’t believe us. call alphys, then. she’s got extensive knowledge of souls and the barrier at her disposal,” Sans relented quietly, shifting on the couch so he could get more comfortable. He tugged at Grillby’s arm briefly, a little shyly, until the other leaned back against the couch with a quiet crackle of relief.

Papyrus seemed to linger on the suggestion for longer than what was perhaps necessary. Then he simply whirled in place and stalked to the kitchen, but at least he was preparing to use his phone.

When he disappeared from view, Sans sighed softly, giving Grillby’s jacket sleeve another tug. “sorry to pull you into this,” he muttered quietly.

Grillby didn’t say anything to that, but wrapped an arm around the other, his fire humming like a fizz.

“you seem kinda, uh…”

 _“Just tired,”_ Grillby hushed quietly. _“May very well take a page out from your book and have a nap when this discussion has come to a conclusion.”_

Sans breathed a sigh of relief, yet knew Grillby was pulling the same thing _he_ was prone to doing - likely to keep him from worrying. The fact that he had been dragged along when he clearly wanted to go home wasn’t lost on Sans.

“want me to whisk you home?” he offered lamely.

 _“Do, and I will be cross.”_ Sans had to laugh lightly at that and drew his arms around Grillby, pulling him closer. _“...Mean it. I know it harms you to do so.”_

“m’fine,” Sans repeated for what felt like the eightieth time. “maybe a nap would be nice.”

_“`Maybe`.”_

“you’re gonna keep mockin’ the maybes, eh?”

_“Probably.”_

Eventually they huddled on the couch, the loose coil in the back cushion digging against Grillby’s elbow as he wrapped his arms around the other, keeping him warm, nurturing the healing font within him. He listened to Papyrus’ exasperated, harsh whispers from the kitchen in what had to be a lengthy yet informative conversation with the Royal Scientist while his soul clenched with apprehension.

He really hoped it didn’t mean what he thought it meant. Being close to the Barrier had been a short-sighted gamble and if Sans was how he was because of _him…_ Well, Grillby didn’t know if he could forgive himself.

He listened to the soft song that reverberated from Sans’ rib cage, muffled by his clothes. It was subtle, yet it was there, a quiet unknown hum of a soul being healed, of it entertaining Hope and Future. Grillby tried to relax against him as his flames kindled a little brighter, his health strengthening and warming up the skeleton.

Sans had taken to stroking over Grillby’s back, a worry of his own in his heart. While he was concerned with the fire monster’s current state, he was also afraid of what his brother might be doing now that his so-called ‘friend’ had been exposed. His mind twisted and recoiled with the memory of what he realised wasn’t a knife, but had been _thorns,_ slashing at him, ruining his home, his friends-

And Papyrus. Poor Papyrus, he could just feel for the guy. Sans closed his sockets when he heard his brother’s footsteps pacing in the kitchen, still at a loss as to what to say.

His only friend… and they had betrayed him. Led him astray, lied to him. Manipulated him. And tried to harm his family. Sans didn’t know what he could say to make things right, or even if he _could_ make things right. Or if it was even up to _him_ to do so.

Lightly grazing his phalanges over the folds of Grillby’s jacket and listening to the steady hum and crisp crackles of the other’s fire, Sans closed his eye sockets.

Eventually Papyrus came back from his conversation with Alphys, a little calmer than before. Almost sheepish, with an air of regret for his misinformed assumption. He tapped his phone between his hands and turned over the device in his grasp, unable to meet with the sight of the two and his very wrong and very embarrassing accusation.

Grillby had fallen asleep on top of Sans, whose eye sockets were half open and whose arms were wrapped around the other, watching his flames lick lazily around the other’s vague features. When Papyrus drew near, his brother looked over to him, hiding his concern.

“IT…” Papyrus stopped when he realised his full volume would likely not be appreciated. “It appears that… I….” He struggled with the sentence before walking over to whisper to his brother and stooped next to the couch. “I… may have been misled.”

Sans winked his dead eye, his grin stiffening sardonically. “maybe.” When the other didn’t answer, he exhaled slowly as to not agitate the sleeping monster on top of him. “that sucks, bud. i know, i’m sorry. it’s hard.”

“I…” _Feel like a fool._ Papyrus couldn’t push away the feeling, having spent so much time with the encouraging flower that it bolstered his confidence and allowed him to be such a pillar of strength - and now it felt as though the floor had been pulled out from under him. All that remained was a massive hole, and while the hole was frightening, it was a better alternative than being led astray again.

Realising that he hadn’t said anything for quite some time and Sans was watching him, worried, Papyrus forced himself to smile. His brother had to rest. His boyfriend was exhausted. Heck, even _he_ was entertaining holing up in his room and permitting himself a few wasted hours of recuperation.

As Papyrus was stuck in his thoughts, Sans’ frown dropped a little more and he reached out to grab his brother’s sleeve, making an effort to give him an apologetic smile.

“don’t beat yourself up. it’s ok, it’s not your fault. it happens.” Sans hated the way he sounded so exhausted and even grew a little irritable when Papyrus patted his hand with a short nod. He looked distracted and absorbed in his thoughts, so Sans sighed softly and gave his hand a squeeze. “bro. i mean it, ok? we can talk. sure, we’re crap at it, but… we need to, y’know, sort through this. there’s been a lot of misinformation tossed around lately. we gotta try, at least.”

Papyrus grinned a little awkwardly at that. “Perhaps… it would be best if you weren’t under fire.”

Sans looked down at Grillby, snoozing over him like a blanket of literal flame, then grinned awkwardly. “no kiddin’, heh.” He attempted to shift, but the fire monster remained asleep and immovable. “guess it’s best if we took a raincheck on that. you look like you…” Sans stopped and his teeth tugged down in a more pronounced frown. “you need to rest, papyrus.”

The taller skeleton nodded in dumb silence, the air thick with concern. He took his hand away from Sans’ and wrung his fingers together. “Do you… need anything? Blankets? Something to drink? Food..?” Between the suggestions, Papyrus could barely contain himself from blurting out what he wanted to ask instead.

_Me?_

Sans’ look was veiled but he felt the needling guilt inside of him again. He also wanted Papyrus to be close by, but he looked plain exhausted. “i’d tell you to stay down here with us, but there’s not a lotta room on the couch anymore, heh.” More awkward silence, and Sans sighed once more, still dozy, still feeling rejected. “promise we’ll talk tomorrow. ok, bro?”

The other nodded, unable to hide the sullen look when he felt the pang of denial. Without being asked, Papyrus left to fetch some snacks to put on the coffee table and took a thick comforter from the hall closet to drape over the two. Within minutes of being covered by both the bartender and the blanket, Sans had slipped into sleep, his brow creased with residual worry.

As awkward as the position was, the two of them remained asleep on the couch throughout the night. Sans dreamt, but the imagery was abstract and foreign, confusing and peculiar.

Several scenes played out in obscure motion, being cared for and protected, even when he was small. Someone being angry with him nearby, but it wasn’t _directed_ at him. Instead, the rage he felt from someplace else seemed like it was for someone he didn’t know. It didn’t make sense, but dreams rarely did. Sans thought for a moment the feelings bled out into his waking consciousness, but when he opened his eye sockets, it honestly felt as though someone had been hovering over him protectively.

But no, it had been just Grillby. His warmth had strengthened somewhat and he had wormed his way to the other’s side, curled against each other with Grillby’s arm hanging over Sans’ left side. The blanket had twisted around them and his clothes were now dry, Sans realised a little blearily as he looked around.

The first thing that he recognised was that the clock was ticking and piercing the silence of the morning with each note. There were no familiar sounds coming from the kitchen as what was usual, so he figured it still had to be quite early. Secondly, he felt a little dizzy, likely due to the fact that the healing well had ceased sometime during the night and Sans had yet to fully recover. That, and he was hungry.

Muting an audible yawn, Sans curled against the fire monster’s body, pulling his arms up to bring the blanket around him a little more. It felt like he couldn’t get warm. But that was impossible. He was being held close by a literal _space heater._

It took him awhile to wake up, his mind creaking like rusty cogs. He fell in and out of sleep before the need for food finally roused him and he gently patted the fire monster’s face to get him to unwrap his arms, the skeleton’s eye lights seeking out the crooked way his glasses hung off on one side. At first, Grillby’s flames kindled subtly in a fluttering arc around the surface of his exposed body, the hues intensifying and brightening when the fire monster finally opened one eye with a puzzled grunt.

“rise an’ shine, morning star,” Sans grinned a little wanly.

Grillby crackled something in response, clearly not in the mood to be awake just then, and he moved to put his hand over the skeleton’s face in protest. Grunting himself, Sans pulled the other’s hand away and rolled up to a sitting position, taking a moment to look down at him. The fires dimmed after a brief stirring and kept low to the other’s form, as though settling back down to rest and conserve energy. Just to make sure they weren’t crushed in Grillby’s sleep, Sans removed his glasses and set them on the coffee table close by.

His back ached when he stood, but Sans was grateful for being able to stand on his own. He grabbed a couple pieces of granola slabs from the table and some juice before turning to the kitchen to check, just in case. Papyrus wasn’t in there, so he figured he must’ve gone upstairs.

‘Upstairs’ seemed like such a daunting task, Sans realised. When he looked up the flight leading to the second floor, vertigo made him sway with a dizzy spell and he had to rest his hand on the bannister to steady himself.

Each step felt as though the world was swinging forwards and backwards like a pendulum and Sans clung to the rail, disoriented. He had managed eight steps by himself and had a few more to go to reach the landing. Then he’d be in the clear - Papyrus’ bedroom door was _right there._

Sans pushed himself further, even when it felt like at one point he was being pulled backwards. But he had made it and was huffing uneasily outside of his brother’s room, trying to get a grip on himself before knocking on Papyrus’ door.

 _Knock, knock._ No answer.

Sans frowned and leaned against the door. Coming forward first to admit he was wrong about things was a foot in the right direction, but he felt out of sorts. Out of bounds. He swayed despite the hard surface keeping him upright and knocked again.

“papyrus… you awake?”

There was a brief pause before Sans sighed, ready to call out again, just in case. “OH THANK GOD. I DON’T KNOW IF I COULD HANDLE A KNOCK-KNOCK JOKE RIGHT NOW!”

Sans grinned wryly. “i’ll spare you today. wanna talk?”

He must’ve been holding back, as the door suddenly opened inwards and Sans lost balance. Mercifully, his brother caught under his arms and Sans grinned at him apologetically. Then his smile fell at Papyrus’ expression and he grew quite sombre as a result, shifting in his brother’s hold until he could walk to the bed on his own.

Perhaps he was reading into it too much, but Sans lingered on the fact that Papyrus hadn’t helped him to the bed. Maybe it was due to every other time he had tried on his own, or merely due to the fact that perhaps now Papyrus still didn’t forgive him. Residual guilt from the day before came trickling back as Sans pulled his arms around himself, watching the other as he drew close.

“ALRIGHT,” Papyrus started with a harsh exhale; it had startled Sans out of his thoughts and forced him down, unable to meet his gaze. “THEN WHY NOT YOU BEGIN FIRST?”

Sans shrugged uncomfortably. “why me?”

“BECAUSE” the other retorted in exasperation, then he corrected himself when he saw Sans flinch. “WHAT I SAY DOESN’T MATTER UNLESS I HAVE A CLEAR AND CONCISE BREAKDOWN OF WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LAB.”

Sans bit back the groan of frustration that threatened to pass his teeth. He rubbed at his upper arms but forced himself to relax, every part of him wanting to bark out accusations again. He kept a reign in on those emotions and exhaled a deep breath, recounting over and over what had happened.

“ok. gotcha.” He took a moment to scratch at his skull, searching for words that weren’t accusatory and wouldn’t push Papyrus away. He had to remain neutral, like the woman on the other side of the door had advised him to be. Another breath, this time shorter, then a long exhale. He got this. He could do it. He didn’t want to constantly be at odds with his brother. “you might wanna sit for this, `cause here’s what i remember-”

Papyrus sat on the end of the bed, but Sans still refused to look at him, to witness the hurt and judgment. “...me in the lab, gearing up to ignite the box. i know you hate `em, but we broke that one. so i dunno, i felt responsible. i had my notebook out with my formulas, schematics. everything in place. i drew up my magic to initiate the sequence and i heard a voice behind me.”

To his credit, Sans was speaking evenly and quietly, every word clear and precise so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself. His brother stayed quiet, brow ridge drawn up in concern, his hands trembling, anxious.

“i thought it was nothing, so i continued. then they say-” And here is where Sans stopped, his voice registering in a pitch that wasn’t at all how his usual tone was. “[ b e h i n d y o u ]. and it felt like something being called back from… i dunno when. i swore it happened, and suddenly i just felt my ribs crack under pressure, but they’re still whole. maybe i just imagined it. panicked.”

With the memory, Sans pulled the fabric of his shirt over his sternum and gave it a light squeeze, as though testing his bones’ limits. His grin remained stiff and unsure, his sockets voided with his recollection. “it’s… kinda hazy, but i remember a chill goin’ through me. but i’m distracted, `cause of the box. and by then, i’m still trying to keep myself together `cause if i mess up the sequence, well, that’s bad news for me, right?”

Sans gave in to a bitter laugh. “maybe i should’ve said somethin’ sooner. maybe what happened before skewed my perception. i shouldn’t’ve… i should’ve waited to do it. but, well… i saw a shoot of green. i can’t really remember much beyond that-” Sans hesitated. While that wasn’t exactly true, he knew in his heart that he couldn’t tell Papyrus about the months of nightmares coming to a head at the sight of his friend, a _flower._ “-apart from [ y o u s h o u l d n ’ t h a v e b e e n ]. thought he meant, i dunno. ‘alive’ in general, so i rushed the box `cause i felt threatened. once it was ignited, i turned to see who it was, and, well…”

Sans defaulted to a shrug. His body had started to tremble, under strain as multiple instances of the same voice called out to him from his night terrors. A shrill laugh, the smell of dust, of chalk and earth.

Papyrus stayed where he was, but he seemed to have relaxed a little. He was drawn up higher from what Sans could see, eyeing him from the corner of his vision. “You were… entirely right about the formula?” he chanced to ask, voice quiet.

“papyrus, i told you. i don’t mess around when it comes to that kinda stuff. but to what happened, i saw his face and it was like… i dunno. seeing an old nightmare that’s been chasing me come to life. he looked different than how i saw him the other day, screwed up, pale face, eyes…” Sans stopped and repressed a shudder, but it only seemed to amplify the sensation. “the laugh… i could’ve done without.”

“that’s… when i attacked him. i’ve done that kinda attack before. mostly in dreams, but most recently during this whole, uh… ‘delayed’ stuff. it’s itchin’ to come out more. but it drains me. that was the first time i’ve ever done it. i know i should’ve gone to you, but me being older, i dunno…” Sans squeezed his arms with another feeble shrug. “felt ashamed, i guess.”

That was when he realised that Papyrus had inched closer. Not a lot, but enough for the distance between them to close and for his brother to reach out with ease and touch his shoulder. Sans didn’t realise how much he had tensed until he felt himself jerk, then relax with his brother’s words.

“IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.”

“and… then you sneakin’ around, and defending him-” Sans stopped when Papyrus made to pull his hand away as though burned, but he snatched his wrist and kept his hand there. “-which i get, honestly, i do! it just made it feel like what happened to me didn’t matter, but i know that’s not how you feel. it just _felt_ like you chose this violent little…” Was the flower really even a monster? He shook his head to clear his thoughts. “anyway, i guess sayin’ it out loud makes it sound stupid as all hell. and i overreacted. and i’m honestly sorry.”

When Papyrus didn’t reply, Sans tried again, not wanting silence to fall between them. “i’m… i _am_ sorry, papyrus.” He gave the hand on his shoulder an encouraging and comforting squeeze when his brother inhaled as though to calm himself.

There wasn’t anger. No accusations. If anything, he felt numb recalling everything that he had. It had been like their evening chatting at the resort in Hotland, yet different. Heavier.

Now done with his piece, Sans felt lost, especially with no verbal acceptance to his apology. He shifted the conversation in an easier direction, defaulting to Papyrus’ need to talk. “uh. your turn.”

“OH.” Papyrus briefly shifted where he sat before forcibly relaxing his shoulders and stared ahead at Sans, who was avoiding his gaze. “I… HADN’T REALISED UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE. I WASN’T TAKING SIDES.”

“i know, i’m sorry i said that-”

“-AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL LIKE YOU’RE NOT IMPORTANT TO ME! YOU’RE MY BROTHER! YOUR WELLBEING AND HAPPINESS HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY NUMBER-ONE PRIORITY!”

He settled his other hand on Sans’ opposite shoulder, to show he cared. To show he meant it. Meanwhile Sans’ expression shifted subtly, as though realisation had come over him with startling reality that Papyrus sacrificed everything in order to assure his happiness.

Papyrus doubled down when he saw it, giving his brother’s shoulders an emphatic squeeze, “DON’T LET YOUR MIND TWIST THAT! BUT IT CERTAINLY DOESN’T HELP WHEN BOTH OF US ARE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS. WHICH IS WHY I… I’M GLAD. THAT YOU WANT TO. TALK, THAT IS.”

Sans’ mind, however, was twisting things in a different way. The canditity, the ease in which Papyrus coached him, it wasn’t as though he was admitting fault. He wanted to bite back the bitter words, but they left him anyway, “are you admitting that you were wrong, then?”

Papyrus’ hold on him slackened somewhat, but he didn’t pull away. He felt the pinch of rebuke and slumped, realising that yes, Sans would fixate on that, no matter how much he was trying. Stars, he _was_ trying, but Sans was also stubborn and old habits die hard.

“nevermind. it’s not important,” Sans muttered with a sting of regret, especially when Papyrus’ briefly excited demeanour melted away to something crestfallen.

“I MISJUDGED SOMEONE,” he admitted softly. “IT HAPPENS.”

Sans remained silent in response, yet managed to look to his brother’s face. He certainly did look put down, dragged through the dirt and put away wet. For all that he was, his brother was still trying to hold up strong, just for him. The thing that was off was that Papyrus _always believed_ in the best of people. To be proven wrong, Sans couldn't even begin to fathom the amount of distress his brother was under. He’d been fired from the Guard; however much it wounded him on a personal level, Papyrus had kept strong and tall, confident that he would get a second chance. It also appeared that he was perhaps entertaining the thought to cut ties with his friend - his _only_ friend outside of their immediate circle.

It hurt Sans to think this way, but Papyrus had loaded up on stress and he hadn’t realised it. He was a fool to think Papyrus was anything but ok with his expulsion from what would be his dream job. His ticket to fame, to _friends._ If anyone could do it, Papyrus could. Sure, it was a grandiose dream, but it would open doors for his brother in ways being stuck in a hick town wouldn’t.

And he of course, was the reason they were even there in the first place.

He couldn’t be selfish.

“IT HAPPENS,” Papyrus repeated a little louder, his voice wavering in a clear indication that this was very hard for him to say, “I WAS… WRONG. AND I’VE SAID THINGS THAT I SHOULDN’T HAVE, AND-”

Sans tried to interrupt; “pap-”

“NO, I MEAN IT! THE CORE’S MAGIC IS DIFFERENT. IT’S UPSETTING. BUT IT’S… ALSO A BYPRODUCT OF YOU. AND WITH YOU BEING TIED INTO IT AS ALPHYS HAS INFORMED ME, I SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER. I SHOULD NOT HAVE LASHED OUT IN FRUSTRATION LIKE I DID! IT’S NOT GREAT. I DIDN’T MEAN TO… AND, WELL, EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE ANGRY WITH ME, YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE. I UNDERSTAND THAT. THAT WAS A HIT BELOW THE BELT.”

The other shrugged his shoulders a little, the pricks of guilt welling up inside. “pap, i’m not angry. it was all in the moment. i was just…” he shifted uneasily with a sigh, “scared, mostly.”

Papyrus drummed his fingers against Sans’ shoulders, looking hesitant. “REGARDLESS. WHILE I HONESTLY ALLOWED MYSELF TO BELIEVE THERE WAS A VALID REASON TO HIS… MACHINATIONS? THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR IT. I WILL ACCEPT YOUR PUNISHMENT.”

Sans started at that. His mind raced, eye lights flickering back into existence to properly gauge his brother’s expression. He wasn’t… _serious,_ was he!? “what-”

“FOR ALL YOUR NIGHTMARES, THE ONE WITH THE ‘PALE FACE’ APPEARS TO BE RATHER PREMONITORY LATELY… AND WITH ASTUTE RESOLUTION, IT SEEMS!”

Sans felt his soul plummet with something he hadn’t considered before. All this time, Papyrus had been lamenting a decision and he was only just then realising what that meant. That Papyrus was and had been considering severing ties with the flower, as conflicting a feeling as that was.

“pap-”

“SO IT’S VERY LIKELY THAT… KEEPING A DISTANCE FROM HIM. FROM… WELL, FRIENDS DON’T TREAT EACH OTHER THAT WAY, RIGHT?” Papyrus sounded like he was shrugging something off, very obviously playing it off as a joke. “HE’S HAD MANY CHANCES TO RIGHT THE WRONGS THAT HE’S DONE,” the other continued sombrely, still tapping his phalanges against Sans’ shoulders. His gaze went downcast, every part of him slumped in humility.

Sans resisted the urge to shake his head, thinking throughout Papyrus’ sobre commiseration how _wrong_ this felt, how this wasn’t within his brother’s traits at all.

He was sacrificing again.

He was letting go of something he cared about.

Sans flinched and tried to lift his arms, feeling them as heavy as lead. He trembled with the realisation that Papyrus was _actually going to do it._ He couldn’t speak, he was so torn. That his brother losing a friend meant peace of mind, but at the same time it wounded him so badly that the other would be alone.

Again.

He swallowed thickly, words fighting him with his wants and what his brother needed to hear. “papyrus…”

“I DO BELIEVE THAT! AND YOU… WON’T HAVE TO WORRY ANYMORE,” more hesitant finger drumming, “I WILL STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE! I WILL DOUBLE DOWN HARD ON THINGS THAT I MUST BE! CARING! COMPASSIONATE! ADMIRABLE! I WILL CATCH A HUMAN, SANS, THEN THERE WILL BE NO WAY PEOPLE MIGHT TAKE ADVANTAGE AGAIN - NO LONGER WILL I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BE THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE WEST!”

Sans stared at him before it finally clicked - like a knife twisted between his ribs, his body shocked with the other’s words. “pap, i don’t want to encourage you to do something you don’t wanna. especially if it means… disconnecting from a friend-” His voice grew more desperate and strained towards the end, but he was cut off again by his brother’s hands, gently squeezing in an attempt to soothe him.

Papyrus sighed harshly, “AND YOU ACCUSE _ME_ OF BEING CONTRADICTORY! NO, MY DEAR BROTHER. THIS IS OF MY OWN VOLITION! I NEED TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE FOR THE SWATHES OF FRIENDS I’LL HAVE IN THE FUTURE. TO GAIN RESPECT IS THE BEST WAY TO GAIN POPULARITY, AFTER ALL-” His grin was a little uneasy and Sans saw through the wavering expression, if only a little. “-JUST LOOK AT UNDYNE!”

They didn’t really speak about that after the day they got back. It just melded into the background of their thoughts and Sans shifted uncomfortably, feeling another pinch of guilt and concern. “how are you feeling about that, by the way?”

The other tensed and Sans managed to lift his hand, gently patting his brother’s forearm encouragingly. “ACTUALLY, WHILE IT HAD… ROCKED ME - IF ONLY A LITTLE! - I DID FIND HER REASONING SOUND. I… MADE ERRORS,” here his brother paused, clearly at odds over divulging his insecurities and he was covering them up as best as he could. “SO I MUST BETTER MYSELF SO THAT SHE CAN SEE HOW GREAT I TRULY AM!”

Sans didn’t feel convinced, but his grin tightened. “i’m glad.” It looked as though his brother wanted to say more, but he pushed on. “papyrus. i’m sorry i blew up.”

“I KNOW.”

“i mean it. it wasn’t fair,” Sans continued, frustrated.

Papyrus still wasn’t looking at him, but he grinned a little awkwardly with an accompanying shrug. “IT’S… ALRIGHT. YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH A LOT LATELY.”

Through another pinch of guilt, Sans pulled the other’s shirt and brought him into a hug, both arms encircling his brother’s chest. “and you too, you doof. you’re stronger than you think,” he whispered against his shoulder, holding him tightly. He felt the way Papyrus’ body had eased in tension, something of a silent rack that shook his brother’s frame in a way he desperately hoped wasn’t a silent sob.

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! I’M-”

“-puttin’ on a farce, but i admire your strength and your optimism through your struggles,” Sans muttered and gave a tighter squeeze to show he meant it, wanting Papyrus to relax and believe him that he wasn’t angry anymore. “it really makes me think about bein’ better, too.”

The other scoffed quietly but it didn’t bite. Instead, Papyrus’ arms enfolded over him in kind, pressing his shoulder blades firmly and scooting closer. “MAKING A PROMISE?” he teased wryly.

Sans could feel the grin against the side of his skull and snorted in jest, “what, and break my streak?” When Papyrus didn’t answer, he sighed and patted his brother’s skull comfortingly. “i’m tryin’. honest. it’s what i can promise. that i’ll _try.”_ If he said it that way, if he didn’t follow through, it would feel less like a personal failure.

Papyrus sank against him and grumbled sourly to himself. “HE’S RIGHT TO CALL YOU STUBBORN!!”

Suddenly Sans laughed, not expecting the accusatory tone. “yeah. got me there.”

* * *

When Grillby woke hours later, a little confused at the unfamiliar surroundings, it took him awhile to figure out where his glasses had gone before fumbling on the coffee table for them. He was sluggish, not at all a morning person, but it was barely morning. He was still wearing his jacket and scarf and he was a rumpled mess. It was likely more towards noon and he sighed at what he assumed would be confusion when he would make it back to the restaurant.

Instead of going back however, he pushed himself up off the couch and stared at the heap of snacks on the table with the clarity of fogged crystals. He helped himself to a few, and wandered around the skeleton brothers’ house to see where things were. He didn’t hear anything but the ticking of the clock on the wall as he poked his head into the empty kitchen and under the stairs, not knowing why he had looked there.

He didn’t quite recall Sans slipping out of his arms earlier, but figured he had to be upstairs. The fire monster dragged himself up, concerned and hoping to see that his friend had recuperated enough to reconcile with his brother. It had been a trying couple of days and while he was still exhausted, Grillby pulled himself up the flight of stairs.

Was it alright if he checked up on them? Papyrus hadn’t been in the living room, nor in the kitchen. Neither was Sans. Grillby moved towards Sans’ room and peeked inside, only to find it empty. The mess and destruction still shocked him but he left it alone since Sans wasn’t there.

He supposed that left Papyrus’ room. He regarded the yellow tape and ‘KEEP OUT’ signage, but saw that the door was ajar. He knew he probably shouldn’t have, but he gently pushed it inwards to have a better look.

Both brothers were asleep on a red racecar bed, Papyrus curled up with his arms wrapped around Sans’ middle, whom was snoozing upright in the most uncomfortable position possible. It certainly wasn’t the _worst_ position Grillby had found the other in, but it appeared the two had mended things at the very least. Of that, he could only hope.

When he moved to turn away, something caught his eye and he turned again to see Sans lift his head slightly. He didn’t know Sans to be a light sleeper, so this concerned him. Unable to explain his actions, the bartender muted his flames and gestured instead of spoke, as not to rouse the sleeping brother; _‘Everything alright?’_

It took a moment for the other to register, his eye sockets void of light and his grin tugged wearily. Then he simply nodded. Grillby breathed out a sigh of relief and offered a kind smile, _‘Make sure you and he rest.’_

Sans still remained quiet but nodded again, idly giving Papyrus’ shoulder a gentle pat. Grillby lingered for a moment more before turning again to leave, only to hear a whisper, very faint.

“grillby.”

He stopped. His heart thumped heavily in surprise at the barely uttered name and he looked in to see Sans’ gaze, eye lights soft but settled on him. He waited with the countenance of patience even though he felt suddenly scrutinised, obliquely under pressure.

Sans shifted slightly, tilting his skull to the side that resulted in an audible click that sounded uncomfortable, to say the least. “we’ll talk too, ok?”

Grillby felt relief flood his core at that. It sounded like a promise; although for what beyond the talk, he wasn’t sure. He offered the other a visible smile and nodded - and when he did so, the tension eased from Sans’ shoulders.

“thanks. and i’m sorry.”

Giving in to a softer sigh, Grillby shook his head and gestured again, making sure that his movements were calm, steady, and concise. He rarely used Hands to converse with the skeleton, so didn’t want anything to be misconstrued.

 _‘Thank you for allowing me to help. Don’t worry too much. Rest.’_ With Sans’ wry smirk, Grillby offered him a reassuring one of his own and shrugged to himself, rolling his shoulder. _‘You know where to find me. Don’t be a stranger.’_

Sans nodded again and Grillby honestly hoped that the other wouldn’t keep away. As easy as the unspoken promise seemed to be, it was a step in the direction of progression and he knew Sans would be hesitant.

The fire monster still felt at odds with himself over the Barrier crisis, uncertain of how he should act or even if it should be looked into further. But for now, he would take the fragile calm the brothers’ reunion brought and slipped away to the comfort of his own dwelling.

He could take a day off, as much as it pained him to think about. He was just so tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Miracle!!! ヽ༼｡> ل͜ <｡༽ﾉ So it is finally revealed what Flowey did in the lab. :3c At least, Sans' recollection of it...
> 
> nsfwingdata finished the final page of chapter 12's confession comic and it's so beautiful ;U; [see here](https://nsfwingdata.tumblr.com/post/175957030203/third-and-final-page-of-the-commission-scene-for) (op is nsfw but page is safe <3)


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